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Carolyn Zasada

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Carolyn Zasada
Image of Carolyn Zasada

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

March 19, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Northern Illinois University, 2019

Graduate

Northwestern University, 2021

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Marine Corps

Years of service

2002 - 2015

Personal
Birthplace
Evanston, Ill.
Religion
Christian
Profession
Real Estate Broker
Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Personal Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Carolyn Zasada (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Illinois House of Representatives to represent District 76. She lost in the Democratic primary on March 19, 2024.

Zasada completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Carolyn Zasada was born in Evanston, Illinois. She served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2002 to 2015. Zasada earned a military citation from the Defense Language Institute in 2009, a bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University in 2019, and a graduate degree from Northwestern University in 2021. Her career experience includes working as a real estate broker and nonprofit founder/executive director.[1]

Elections

2024

See also: Illinois House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Illinois House of Representatives District 76

Amy Murri Briel defeated Liz Bishop in the general election for Illinois House of Representatives District 76 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Amy Murri Briel
Amy Murri Briel (D)
 
50.6
 
23,931
Image of Liz Bishop
Liz Bishop (R) Candidate Connection
 
49.4
 
23,336

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 47,267
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 76

Amy Murri Briel defeated Cohen Barnes and Carolyn Zasada in the Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 76 on March 19, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Amy Murri Briel
Amy Murri Briel
 
36.4
 
2,393
Image of Cohen Barnes
Cohen Barnes
 
32.0
 
2,104
Image of Carolyn Zasada
Carolyn Zasada Candidate Connection
 
31.6
 
2,078

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 6,575
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 76

Liz Bishop defeated Crystal Loughran in the Republican primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 76 on March 19, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Liz Bishop
Liz Bishop Candidate Connection
 
67.0
 
3,187
Image of Crystal Loughran
Crystal Loughran Candidate Connection
 
33.0
 
1,571

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 4,758
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Zasada in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia
Released February 19, 2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Carolyn Zasada completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Zasada's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Born in Evanston, IL, Carolyn Morris is a combat-decorated veteran with 13 years of experience leading up to 140 Marines. As a Marine she served as a Combat Engineer, building bridges in Iraq from 2004-2005. She graduated from the Defense Language Institute in 2009 and became a Cryptologic Linguist. After exiting Active Duty service in 2013 to stay home with her children she founded a 501c-3 charity while continuing to serve in the Marine Corps Reserves in Peoria.

Eager to serve, Carolyn was elected the City of DeKalb’s 1st Ward Alderman, a Precinct Committee Person and serves on the Lt. Governor’s Military and Economic Development Commission. Redirected from her academic pursuits by 9/11, she completed her B.S. in Economics at Northern Illinois University in 2019 and in 2021 her Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration at Northwestern University to inform her continued service. Today she works as a real estate agent in Northern Illinois and the Illinois Valley. Carolyn enjoys spending time with her husband and five children and attending their sporting events. She is an avid swimmer, having served as a Marine Combat Instructor of Water Survival in the United States Marine Corps. She works to share her love for life and the outdoors with her family.

Carolyn believes in leadership through humility, and service that is accountable to those who are served. After many moves, Carolyn is happy to be home with her family, in DeKalb, Illinois.
  • For the 76th district I'm focusing on three things. The first is increasing living wage jobs in the district. I've served on DeKalb city council for 5 years now. We have been very successful at attracting big corporations to the city for the past five years. This is a model that can be applied in different parts of the district as well. Further, enacting a progressive income tax, and balancing the state's budget will put us in a stronger position to add more living wage jobs, and ensure our pensions are protected and fully funded.
  • The second focus is increasing access to affordable healthcare, especially mental healthcare. As more people recognize their need for mental healthcare our system is overwhelmed. We're not paying providers enough and it is a costly field to enter. We need to reduce some barriers to entry to increase the number of providers, and we need to make the pay match the time and energy it takes to enter the field. Additionally, the Illinois Valley has lost two hospitals. Ensuring local access to basic healthcare needs is essential to a thriving population.
  • The third focus is decreasing the tax burden on people. Enacting a progressive income tax structure will put the state in a financially sound position that will allow us to support local governments better so that we can support the reduction of real estate taxes. Restoring local government distributive fund (LGDF) revenues will return income taxes to local governments, which is an initiative this year under HB1116.
Our democracy is at risk. Protecting our freedoms including a woman's right to bodily autonomy, and the health care access we need is a top priority. I am passionate about bringing equity through a progressive income tax structure, and universal free pre-k, that extends to increasingly younger children. These changes will ensure children enter kindergarten ready to learn. Only 8 states use a flat tax structure, like Illinois'. The shift is necessary to balance the state budget and bring equity. People at the lowest end of the socioeconomic spectrum will be in a better position with this change, which helps society. Above all, I am passionate about people thriving, putting people first and ending systemic inequities.
I look up to my parents. They were both hard workers who stood by my side through thick and thin. My mother works today still as a lean six sigma blackbelt trainer. She's brilliant, she's honest and forthright. My father and she both raised me with a solid moral compass that they demonstrated in their day to day lives.
Because there is no limit here, I'm going to lean on my Marine Corps training and experience, and reference 14 qualities: justice, judgment, dependability, integrity, decisiveness, tact, initiative, endurance, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty and enthusiasm. I've honed all of these skills over the last 20 years. From serving in Iraq, and growing in rank to an E-6, exiting the service to care for my children, and working in nonprofits, managing volunteers and serving on DeKalb City Council I've cultivated these skills. The area I've grown the most in is learning when not to speak, or in tact and bearing. I've learned what moral courage is on DeKalb city council, and learned that its most important to speak out when it feels uncomfortable. Finally, I invested heavily in my knowledge after exiting the Marine Corps, going back to school and earning my B.S. in Economics at Northern Illinois University, and my M.A. in Public Policy and Administration at Northwestern University. I was taught unselfishness by my five children. As a leader I recognize that everyone is someone's baby, and each person should be treated with that level of reverence and respect. As a first born child I imagine I was born a leader, but I know that I've been put the fire and fully refined during a lifetime of many trials and tribulations.
The leadership qualities I previously described.
The core responsibilities for this role are to serve the public by listening and being available to them; to act in this role as a full-time representative; to rely on one's own knowledge and understanding and gut instincts that they were elected for, but also to refine their understanding constantly and hear the will of the people and to make decisions based on a combination thereof. Being accessible to the people and designing opportunities for the community to access their representative is important as well. I believe strongly in using tools that make it easier for people to reach their representatives, such as technology and town halls. Further, I believe that when a person assumes a public trust they should consider themselves public property to a degree.
I'd like people to be able to say that their lives are better for my involvement.
9/11 occurred during my first week of college. It altered the trajectory of my life, pointing me to the Marine Corps.
I started babysitting my siblings at a young age. I worked at age 14 at an after school hang out spot for kids called Cat's Place in Webster, South Dakota. At 15 I began life guarding and by 16 I was teaching swim lessons as well.
This doesn't happen to me. I like to think I've overcome it. lol.
I turned 21 in a combat zone. I am a domestic violence survivor. I don't like the word survivor because I know I'm thriving. Serving in the Marine Corps surrounded me with unique traumas in my 20's. My second husband almost died in a motorcycle accident and had to learn to walk again. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ravaged the people around me. I have a friend who died in Afghanistan, and another who lost his legs. In my 30's I lost a friend to domestic violence murder. I feel like I've lived many lifetimes. But all of this has given me a stronger value for the short time I have on earth and impressed upon me the importance of doing the most good I possibly can. I live with a sense of urgency and a tremendous value for people and the freedoms I have fought for and my friends have sacrificed their lives, limbs, and or mental health for.
Reducing taxes while increasing revenue to maintain population.
Yes
Yes
After serving on DeKalb City Council for just a month, listening to a woman describe how she was trapped in her burning apartment and had to drop her baby out the window to her father below showed me just how important what I am doing is. She was forced into this terrible situation because of irresponsible landlords who had allowed her building to turn into a slum, there were 6 mattresses stacked outside her apartment door. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes afterward. She couldn't escape the apartment any way but through the window. This was bigger than dealing with potholes in the roads. So I earned my masters in public policy so that I could find REAL solutions to these huge problems.
I can imagine times when this would be helpful.
First I would rally support and identify the best path forward for my bill. But finding the best way to enact a progressive income tax to help the state budget, and people, is a top priority because so many other things fall in line afterward.
State Representative Stephanie Kifowit

State Representative Theresa Mah

Veteran's For Change
Economic Opportunity and Equity Committee

Revenue and Finance Committee
Mental Health and Addiction Committee
Rules Committee
Child Care Access and Early Childhood Committee

Veterans Affairs Committee

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Carolyn Zasada campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2024* Illinois House of Representatives District 76Lost primary$88,726 $87,368
Grand total$88,726 $87,368
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

See also

2024 Elections

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External links

Candidate

Illinois House of Representatives District 76
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 19, 2024


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