For a second time, Republican David Dewar is challenging incumbent Mary Gill in the 35th House District, which includes all or parts of Alsip, Beverly, Mount Greenwood, Orland Park, Merrionette Park and Palos Park.
Gill, a member of the House Democratic moderate caucus, has held the seat since March 2023.
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Dewar, a Calumet Park native and financial adviser, ran as a Democrat in the 2022 and 2024 primaries. However, he was removed from the 2022 ballot after an Illinois election board upheld an objection to his campaign. He proceeded to run as a write-in candidate and received six votes, according to election results.
Dewar challenged Gill in the 2024 Democratic primaries but lost by more than 10,700 votes, according to election results.
Dewar ran as a Republican in the 2026 primary and has been vocal about his support for President Trump and Charlie Kirk.
Campaign finance reports show Gill has raised $134,179 for her 2026 campaign from various individuals, political action committees and organizations. She had about $105,766 cash on hand, according to most recent reports.
Finance reports for Dewar’s 2026 campaign did now show any contributions or expenditures as of Tuesday. Reports show Dewar has about $75 cash on hand.
Key issues
Gill has advocated for more investment in healthcare, public safety and affordability initiatives. She said she successfully passed bills to expand mental health resources for first responders, increase access to Alzheimer’s treatments and increase funding for fire and emergency vehicles.
Dewar, president of Tax Free Retirement Solutions, said he advocates for small businesses, affordability and public safety reform. He has also been vocal about his opposition toward hormone therapy and illegal immigration.
Affordability and taxes
Gill said she does not want any homeowners to leave Illinois because they can’t afford it, and said addressing property taxes is a top priority.
She successfully sponsored legislation to reduce home energy bills to provide long-term relief to Illinois families facing rising energy costs.
“My district is predominantly middle class and I care so much about all people,” Gill said.
She encourages residents to learn more about property taxes and has attended and hosted workshops to help residents learn about how to appeal their property assessments.
Dewar proposes capping property taxes at 2% and said he came up with the percentage by reading research published by Brian Costin, a taxpayer advocate and deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity-Illinois.
“It’s not just a number I picked. We researched it it,” Dewar said. “Some people in the Chicago areas are paying 10%. … What’s happening is we’re going to have foreclosures, (and) people are going to loose their properties,” Dewar said.
Both candidates support investing more in education and acknowledged that many public schools rely on property taxes for most of their funding.
Gill, a former teacher, said she believes it is important to fund schools but with the state’s budget deficit said she is unlikely there will be an education funding increase. She did not comment on whether school districts should cut spending but said she supports the general assembly’s goal of an annual 300 million dollar increase to the evidence-based funding formula.
Dewar said schools that are performing better should receive more funding. He said he does not want to penalize or cut funding for schools that are not performing well, but wants to look more closely at how money for schools is allocated.
Data centers
Gill said data centers need more regulations. She supports requiring closed water loop systems, a technique that cools down servers and networking equipment inside data centers.
She also supports a legal provision requiring data centers to have their own electric supply and prohibit data centers entering into nondisclosure agreements with local governments.
“I think it’s important to establish something that ensures that data centers’ electricity use is paid for by the data centers and not socialized among all ratepayers,” Gill said.
Dewar said if data centers benefit the community, he does not see a problem. He said it is important to listen to people’s concerns regarding data centers and “use common sense.”
However, he said it is important evaluate factors such as environmental risks, including as how data centers affect availability of clean drinking water.
Public safety
Gill said she would have opposed the SAFE-T Act
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, which eliminated cash bail in Illinois, if she was in office when it passed. However, she said she would focus on fixes to the law, such as addressing ankle monitoring.Gill previously proposed HB3465 in 2025 that would have required public records under the Freedom of Information Act to include the names of people on electronic monitoring, and the number of times a person on electronic monitoring has violated the terms.
She said the bill has not gone anywhere but said it would have been a step in creating more transparency.
Dewar said that he opposes the SAFE-T Act and would vote to repeal it. He said the act does not address repeat offenders, and he would support legislation for more fines and penalties for repeat offenders.
He said the act also makes it harder for police officers to do their job.