Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski is a champion for working families, a native of Downstate Illinois and the proud Representative for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District.
Nikki knows that our communities thrive when the middle class is strong. But for too long, working hard and playing by the rules hasn’t been paying off like it should. She believes that families deserve better, and she’s spent her entire career fighting to help restore the American Dream for people like her grandpa, a union painter, and her grandma, a public school teacher.
After graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Nikki joined the labor movement where she fought to get firefighters, grocery workers and meatpackers better wages, benefits and workplace safety protections. She worked for the Governor of Illinois where she led negotiations to raise Illinois’ minimum wage to $15 an hour and chaired the Broadband Advisory Board to expand internet access to rural communities. And she worked at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget where she helped implement the American Rescue Plan and establish the Made in America Office to bring jobs home and strengthen our economy.
In 2023, Nikki joined Congress where she’s continuing her lifelong fight for working people. She serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to advocate for federal policies that support Illinois family farmers and our nation’s heroes. She serves as a Vice-Chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus where she works to protect workers’ rights and advance the labor movement. She’s also a member of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition where she founded the Climate Jobs Task Force focused on driving economic development and creating good-paying union jobs while reducing harmful emissions and protecting the environment for future generations.
In all of Nikki’s efforts to bring the voices of people in Central and Southern Illinois to Washington, she’s focused on putting their needs over partisan politics, reaching for compromise and delivering results for the communities she serves. She’s proud to be the Freshman Leadership Representative of the New Democrat Coalition – a group of 100 lawmakers focused on bridging the partisan divide with solutions to the most pressing issues facing our country and our communities. And she’s been ranked as one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives by the Common Ground Committee for her work across the party aisle.