Joe Walsh (R-IL-8)i

Congressman Joe Walsh

House links: Joe Walsh (R-IL-8)i

Joe Walsh Congressional Candidate Illinois District 8

Biography of Joe Walsh from House.gov

Joe Walsh has dedicated his professional life to service and advocacy. He has advocated on behalf of a wide range of public policy issues and causes, most notably advancing market-based solutions to education reform and urban poverty.

Joe began his career with Jobs For Youth, working in inner-city Chicago teaching high school dropouts basic academic and job skills; he worked on state and local public policy issues with the Heartland Institute, a free market think tank; he ran the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, a Chicago-based privately funded school voucher program which gives high school scholarships to low-income Chicago eighth graders; he helped launch the Legislative Education Action Drive and Americans for Limited Government, national organizations working to get fiscally conservative state legislators elected in targeted states and advance the causes of limited government; he raised funds for and helped advance the cause of school choice for two of the nation’s leading school choice organizations, the American Education Reform Council and the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation; and he continues to build support for an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to deliver Nicaraguan children from poverty, the Fabretto Children’s Foundation.

For the past couple of years, Joe has worked with local groups focused on raising early stage investment capital for new and small businesses and entrepreneurs. He has also consulted with the United Republican Fund, an Illinois-based state PAC helping to elect Republican state legislators.

Joe has a BA in English from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. He has taught American government and American history at the community college level for a number of years, at Oakton Community College and the Hebrew Theological College.

Joe has run spirited campaigns for elected office twice, first as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in 1996 and then as a Republican candidate for the Illinois State House in 1998.

As a life-long advocate for limited government and a vibrant private sector, Joe is troubled by the recent rapid growth of government spending and involvement in our lives. This concern has convinced him to move back to McHenry, IL, and run for the U.S. Congress. He intends to be a loud, forceful voice against this expanding government which will stifle economic growth and bankrupt our children and grandchildren.

Joe was born and raised in the heart of the Eighth District, growing up in a family of nine children. He and his wife Helene together have five children.

Biography of Joe Walsh from Walsh for Congress

Joe Walsh is a Tea Party Conservative first and a proud Republican second. Born and raised in North Barrington, Illinois, Joe comes from a big Irish Catholic family and is the 5^th of nine children.

After graduating from Barrington High School, Joe attended Grinnell College in Iowa where he was recruited to play football. After two years he transferred to the University of Iowa where he earned his BA in English. Joe then went on to earn an AM in Public Policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy

Joe has dedicated his life to service. He began his career working in the inner-city of Chicago, where he taught and developed education and work-related programs for high school dropouts with Jobs for Youth.

In 1994, Joe became the Public Policy Director at The Heartland Institute, a national think tank focused on domestic public policy issues. He focused on education reform issues and launched a state-wide grassroots school reform movement. In 1997, he became Executive Director of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation, a Chicago-based organization which gives high school scholarships to low-income Chicago eighth graders. He tripled the size of the organization in terms of funds raised and kids served and engaged in public speaking on education reform around the country.

In 2001, Joe launched The Lead Foundation, a political organization designed to educate the public on free market solutions to public policy issues to help get free market state legislators elected in states around the country. He went on to become the Development Head for the American Education Reform Council, a leading national school reform organization and a Major Gifts Officer for The Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation, the nation’s most influential school choice advocacy organization. In a full and part time capacity, he has also raised funds and awareness for Fabretto, a Nicaraguan organization which uses education and micro enterprise to deliver Nicaraguan children from poverty.

Prior to running for Congress, Joe had increased his focus on business development and venture capital. In 2005 he became Vice President of New Business Development for Advantage Futures, a trading firm at the Chicago Board of Trade. In 2007 he became a Director with Michigan Avenue Ventures, a Chicago-based boutique investment banking group specializing in early stage capital raises across industries

Teaching is one of Joe’s passions. In addition to teaching at Jobs For Youth, he has also taught American Government and American history at the Hebrew Theological College and at Oakton Community College. Joe often says that when he is done with politics he will go back to teaching.

Elected to the United States Congress in 2010, Joe has held true to his campaign pledges and refused his Congressional health benefits and pension package. When in Washington, Joe sleeps in his office and comes home every weekend to hold town halls and meet with constituents. No member of Congress has held more town halls this past year than Congressman Joe Walsh.

Passionate about many issues, Joe has been particularly vocal in urging Congress to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment. He is a strong advocate for the State of Israel and Second Amendment rights. Joe currently serves on the Small Business Committee where he is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax & Capital Access, as well as on Homeland Security, where he is Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Transportation Security and he serves on the Oversight and Government Reform committee.

Joe lives in McHenry, Illinois with his wife Helene and their dog Lulu. Between them they have five children.