By all accounts, Carl Lambrecht is an OK guy. He’s been successful in the world of manufacturing.
He’s run for one public office and is on the Nov. 3 ballot as the Republican challenger to incumbent Democrat Brad Schneider in the 10th Congressional District. Both are Highland Park residents, and there are four write-in candidates also on the ballot.
By the way, Lambrecht is 93 years old. One hates to be ageist in these perilous times, but as Joe Biden was fond of saying: “C’mon, man.”
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When most nonagenarians, those Americans in their nineties, are enjoying their luck at having genes that have taken them a decade from becoming centenarians, Lambrecht is running for Congress.
Or is he?
He certainly is spending no money on his campaign. Perhaps being a phantom candidate is part of his political strategy.
Lambrecht has no candidate website or presence on social media. His photo is missing from the candidate listing on the Illinois GOP’s website. It is the only one not featured.
He did about the same during his unsuccessful campaign for Illinois House District 58 in 2024, when incumbent Democrat Bob Morgan of Deerfield throttled him in the race. Lambrecht was unopposed in the party primary in March, which says something about the state of Republicans in Lake County.
However, Lambrecht did appear at an Oct. 10 online forum sponsored by the Lake County League of Women Voters, according to a News-Sun story by Steve Sadin.
That was when the Moraine Township GOP committeeman and owner of Highland Park-based Laurel Industries, which designs specialty optical lenses for industrial and military uses, said reducing the number of school districts in Illinois will lower education costs, requiring less tax money. That is one of his key campaign issues, although school districts usually come under state purview, not the federal government’s.
At the forum, Lambrecht also said his only guiding principles are “the Ten Commandments given to us by Moses (and) the Constitution of the United States,” according to Sadin’s report. Good to know where a candidate stands on that issue.
Schneider is seeking his sixth term in the U.S. House. Since the 2010s, he’s been a congressional fixture in the suburban-centric 10th District, which takes in most of Lake County, along with slices of Cook and McHenry counties. He was first elected in 2012, then defeated by Republican Bob Dold in 2014, and re-elected in a rematch with Dold in 2016. Schneider turned 65 years old in August.
His opponent seemingly is a November sacrificial lamb. One online election‑focused prediction market platform gives Lambrecht a 2.1% chance of winning the race. Not that any candidate in dark-blue Lake County would have a chance against incumbent Schneider.
While a nonagenarian running for office in 2026 is an oddity in Lake County, there are 28 members of Congress who are 80 years old or older, according to various reports. There are 134 members of both houses who are 70 and older.
Democrat Dick Durbin, the current senior senator from Illinois, turns 82 on Nov. 21. He decided this election cycle not to seek re-election and not to continue aging in office. Unlike U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who recently announced he has no plans to leave office in the near future.
Grassley, who celebrated his 93rd birthday Sept. 17, is currently serving his eighth term in the Senate. He’s been on the public payroll since 1959 when he became a member of the Iowa Legislature. He’s been one of Iowa’s two senators since 1981, getting elected during the Reagan landslide of 1980.
Grassley is the oldest-sitting member of the Senate and one of the longest-serving Republicans in Congress. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected a senator.
The aging senator filed nominating paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, notifying commissioners that he expects to run for the Senate again in 2028. He’s been stewing that a Democrat governor could appoint his successor if he were to die in office.
If Grassley were to die in the next two years, the next governor of Iowa — set to be elected this fall — would make a temporary appointment to fill the seat until the 2028 election. Polls currently show a close election among the Democrat and Republican candidates in the Hawkeye State.
If Grassley is alive, runs and wins in 2028, he’d still be in office at age 101. Apparently, he wants to get into the Guinness World Records book for oldest and longest-serving member of Congress.
Which is a problem for the U.S. Once in office, these federally elected officials don’t want to leave. They become comfortable with the perks of the office; younger hopefuls aren’t in the political pipeline.
In the Senate, members of the Baby Boomer cohort, those born between 1946 and 1964, remain the largest generation represented. Boomers are no longer the majority in the House.
We have a president who apparently doesn’t know who our allies are, who turned 80 years old in June. President Donald Trump will be 82 when he leaves office, the oldest in U.S. history.
Aging in office is a sign of the times, and Carl Lambrecht hopes to add to the numbers.
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Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor, and editor. [email protected]. X @sellenews