Joe Berning
Joe Berning (Democratic Party) is running for election to the Illinois State Senate to represent District 45. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.[source]
Berning completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Joe Berning attended the University of Wisconsin, Platteville. His career experience includes working as a district sales manager for a Fortune 500 company, for Prudential Insurance Company, and as the owner and operator of JB Consulting. He has been affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, Future Farmer's of America, Jo Daviess County Democrats, and the Lion's Club.[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.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for Illinois State Senate District 45
Joe Berning (D) is running in the Democratic primary for Illinois State Senate District 45 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Joe Berning  | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 45
Incumbent Andrew Chesney (R) is running in the Republican primary for Illinois State Senate District 45 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Andrew Chesney | |
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| = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Joshua Atkinson (R)
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
Joe Berning completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Berning's responses.
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- That I intend to represent all the voters in the district, regardless of party affiliation. NW Illinois has many good, hard-working residents and their voices deserve to be heard.
I will listen to them and be considerate for their concerns to the best of my abilities, without prejudice.
A big part of my motivation to campaign for this position is the fact that the incumbent has chosen to Not communicate with many of the constituents. - I fully intend to do all that I can to help save our family farms. In recent years we have seen the "playing field" between the smaller to medium sized farms and the larger to mega sized farms become far too favorable for the latter. Instead of giving tax breaks and volume incentives to the large corporate farms, there are some programs we could legislate that could help all farms more equally. We should have some incentives to help young family farmers get started in the business. Also, a fair and progressive tax system would allow for the state of Illinois to lower the death tax rates, making it easier to pass a farm (and other businesses) from one generation to the next.
- I want to help solve the affordability crisis that is harming -- even destroying our lower to middle class. Many of today's younger families are struggling to buy their first home, pay increased rents, replace a vehicle, buy clothes, groceries, fuel, etc... due to the gross inequities between themselves and the wealthy class, i.e. the corporate CEO types who have become millionaires, while not offering their employees fair wages or benefits. When we start taking better care of our "blue collar" workers, we automatically strengthen our families and our communities. Strong Unions for union labor and collective bargaining is a must.
I believe that healthcare benefits must be made affordable to everyone, and that we must do a better job of taking care of our veterans, our disabled, and our elderly.
Also, in following "The Golden Rule" -- which simply states that we should treat others as we ourselves want to be treated.
A fair and progressive tax system to help with keeping the budget balanced, pensions funded, etc...
In the present, I do like Senators Mike Halpin and Steve Stadelman, who would also be my "neighbors".
It may not be possible to "restart" the investigation, but I do wonder if there's something I could do to help... ?
I will say it could have to do with helping small to medium businesses get started, including farmers.
In my first year of running my "JB Consulting" business, I kept and continued to sell and service 48 of those 51 customers.
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
External links
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Candidate Illinois State Senate District 45 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 23, 2025
