It’s the 12 Days of Ballotpedia! Your gift powers the trusted, unbiased information voters need heading into 2026. Donate now!

Ernie Marcelain

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ernie Marcelain
Democratic Party
Candidate, Illinois State Senate District 38
Elections and appointments
Next election
March 17, 2026
Education
High school
Sandwich High School
Associates
Waubonsee Community College
Personal
Birthplace
Lake Forest, IL
Religion
Christian
Profession
Manager
Contact
Campaign Facebook
Campaign Instagram
Personal Facebook
Personal X
Personal Instagram
Personal TikTok

Ernie Marcelain (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Illinois State Senate to represent District 38. He declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on March 17, 2026.[source]

Marcelain completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Ernie Marcelain was born in Lake Forest, Illinois. Marcelain earned a high school diploma from Sandwich High School and an associate degree from Waubonsee Community College. His career experience includes working as a manager, firefighter, and EMT with paramedic training. [1]

Elections

2026

See also: Illinois State Senate elections, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on March 17, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for Illinois State Senate District 38

Ernie Marcelain (D) is running in the Democratic primary for Illinois State Senate District 38 on March 17, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Ernie Marcelain
Ernie Marcelain  Candidate Connection

There are no incumbents in this race.

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

Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 38

Incumbent Sue Rezin (R) is running in the Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 38 on March 17, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Sue Rezin
Sue Rezin

Incumbents are bolded and underlined.

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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Ernie Marcelain completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Marcelain's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a former union and firefighter/EMT who is currently a husband of 24 years and proud father to a 22 year old daughter who’s attending college. Since I was 5 years old my ambitions were to be in office solely to help people in anyway I can. I have strong empathy and a strong backbone when it comes to people who are less fortunate as myself. My father is a former Military police officer in Vietnam and my grandfathers both served valiantly in WW2 in both theaters. Those strong patriotic roots gave me pride and respect to our American way of life. My role model is Abraham Lincoln and I strive everyday to to project his ideals and compassion for all Americans.
  • Making life more affordable for working Americans
  • Protecting and expanding heathcare and hospitals
  • Boosting small businesses while creating good paying jobs
Heathcare
Abraham Lincoln hands down. He was able to see the world through a different lens and his words carry true to this day. He was tough and compassionate at the same time.
Strength along with not being afraid to stand up for what is right and standing up for the everyone. Looking ahead at problems coming and acting before the problem exists. When a crisis happens the elected official should not rely on others to help but they should roll up their sleeves and physically help in anyway possible. An elected official is no better than the everyday person.
The leader of an elected official is the people they represent.
The core responsibilities of an elected official is to vote for any legislation that is to protect their constituents and make life better. They must not be afraid to push back when the voters voice needs to be heard.
I would love to have a legendary where people will say that I changed their life for the better. There’s nothing better than putting people in a better spot because of things I did.
Fireworks for Americas bicentennial. I was 2 years old.
Pizza Hut cook. I worked there for 2 years and it was one of my most favorite jobs. The teamwork and fun was most enjoyable
Pet cemetery by Stephen King. It was one that I couldn’t put down back in the day.
Superman. All of those powers and never taking power for granted. Shooting lasers out of your eyes would be kinda cool too.
I struggle with taking other people’s problems onto myself. Things like that keep me up at night.
There has to be a good relationship but there also needs to be frank and honest dialogue with a little give and take from time to time.
Heathcare is the biggest challenge with hospitals on the verge of collapse. If that were to happen lives would be in danger and with that unemployment will skyrocket.
Another challenge is keeping affordability at a level where everyday workers like myself can put food on the table.
I don’t think it’s beneficial to have previous experience. I actually think the opposite is true. We have a lot of career politicians who play the game and not do the job they were elected to do. We need people who will feel any pain their constituents will feel with the policies that are passed.
I absolutely think it’s required to build relationships with other legislators. No one idea or policy is good for all. There must be cooperation between all to get the ultimate goal of the voters winning. There may be great ideas from other lawmakers that are not thought of that will be solutions for most issues.
Abraham Lincoln
Possibly but if I do it will be at the will of the voters to recommend it.
I had a person who told me that we need to not blame the people in charge of the federal government for the problems but we need to blame ourselves. We are the rulers of own destiny by the actions we take everyday.
Oversight is extremely important with emergency powers. We must have checks and balances with any powers a person might have.
A bill that will give hospitals and healthcare a way to stay afloat. The next one would be to give relief financially to the residents.
I oppose changes currently.
One 80 year old African American man was sharing his stories of growing up with segregation and racism and he said he was very worried America was going back to that and I saw tears in his eyes. It was a very powerful experience and broke my heart.
I’m extremely proud of raising my daughter with my wife to be smart and empathetic person that she is. Another thing I’m proud of is overachieving expectations and having people not regret putting their trust in me.
Nothing at this time.

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

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also

2026 Elections

Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge.png
What's on the ballot?
U.S. Congress
U.S. Congress special elections
State executives
State legislatures
State courts
Ballot measures
Municipal government
School boards
Election analysis hub

Government

Seal of Illinois.png
Who represents me?
U.S. Congress
State executives
State legislators
State courts
Ballot measures
Municipal government
School boards

Newsletters

Ballotpedia RSS.jpg
The Daily Brew
The Weekly Brew
The Ballot Bulletin
Checks and Balances
Economy and Society
Hall Pass
Number of the Day
Robe & Gavel
Union Station


External links

Candidate

Illinois State Senate District 38
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
    		•

    Personal

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Instagram
    		•

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 3, 2025


    Current members of the Illinois State Senate
    Leadership
    Senate President:Don Harmon
    Majority Leader:Kimberly Lightford
    Minority Leader:John Curran
    Senators
    District 1
    District 2
    District 3
    District 4
    District 5
    District 6
    District 7
    District 8
    District 9
    District 10
    District 11
    District 12
    District 13
    District 14
    District 15
    District 16
    District 17
    District 18
    District 19
    District 20
    District 21
    District 22
    District 23
    District 24
    District 25
    District 26
    District 27
    District 28
    District 29
    District 30
    District 31
    District 32
    District 33
    District 34
    District 35
    District 36
    District 37
    District 38
    Sue Rezin (R)
    District 39
    District 40
    District 41
    District 42
    District 43
    District 44
    District 45
    District 46
    District 47
    District 48
    District 49
    District 50
    Jil Tracy (R)
    District 51
    District 52
    District 53
    District 54
    District 55
    District 56
    District 57
    District 58
    District 59
    Democratic Party (40)
    Republican Party (19)


    Flag of Illinois
    v • e
    State of Illinois
    Springfield (capital)
    Elections

    What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures

    Government

    Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy


    Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Ernie_Marcelain&oldid=10711418"