Sangamon Sun

Stephanie Trussell, candidate for lieutenant governor for Illinois, has been campaigning around the state with running mate Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville).

“I love being on the road and getting to know the hard-working people of our state,” Trussell said. 

Bailey announced Trussell as his running mate in December last year in a press conference in Lisle. Trussell touted that her life and work experiences are part of how her work ethic was shaped.

"I got my first job at 14 at Pick and Pay, it was my best friend's family's corner store," Trussel said at the time. "At 15, I started working at McDonald's. At 17, I was a crew chief, by 18 I was a manager. I learned early the value of hard work."

Trussel was born on the west side of Chicago. She was raised by her mother who was barely 17 when she was born. Trussell's family moved to DuPage County in 1994. Her "demographic told her she should be a Democrat, but she didn’t fit that mold. She saw through a party that promised prosperity, but left people behind,” according to bailleyforillinois.com.  

"Years later my eyes were opened to how Democratic and Progressive policies that were supposed to help me were actually hurting me, making things worse," Trussell said. "I kept working and fighting and eventually my husband and I moved to Lisle."

Trussell and her husband raised their five children while she enjoyed serving her community. In 2012 she won a talk radio contest for listeners of WLS-AM 890, the largest talk radio station in Chicago, where she beat more than 100 other entrants and received an opportunity to host her own 2-hour radio show for a day. "That one show turned into a seven-year career as one of Chicago’s most well-known conservative radio hosts. Chicago listeners could tune into The Stephanie Trussell Show to hear from local and national politicians and other well-known guests. Stephanie was known for promoting transparency on her show and was determined to shed light on the failed policies of the Democratic Party,” Darren Bailey's website reads.

She noted her support for Bailey’s movement after being picked as his running mate. “I love this country, and I continue to support the America First agenda that fights for working people, and I voted for President Trump in 2016 and campaigned and voted for him in 2020,” Trussell wrote on Twitter, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “I am a fighter and not someone who always toes the party line, but I support President Trump, and I will not apologize to the internet trolls or the left-wing media for who I am. As a mother of 5 kids and grandmother of 2, the future of Illinois is important to me, and I’m ready to focus on the real issues and fight with Darren Bailey to bring commonsense, conservative solutions to Springfield.”

Bailey introduced Trussell as his running mate at a campaign stop on Dec.13 noting that Trussell is "a hard-working conservative, a fighter, a mother, a grandmother and Illinois' next lieutenant governor.”