Joseph Kopsick

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Joseph Kopsick

Independent

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2009

Personal

Birthplace

Lake Forest, Ill.

Profession

Private security guard

Contact

Campaign Facebook

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Joseph Kopsick (independent) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 10th Congressional District. He lost as a write-in in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Kopsick completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Kopsick was a 2012 candidate who sought election to the U.S. House to represent the 2nd Congressional District of Wisconsin. He did not collect the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot.

Biography

Kopsick was born on February 24, 1987, in Lake Forest, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a bachelor's degree in 2009. His professional experience includes working as private security guard. He also has worked for Ben Manski's Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, restaurants, as a legal secretary, and janitor.

Elections

2020

See also: Illinois' 10th Congressional District election, 2020

Illinois' 10th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 17 Republican primary)

Illinois' 10th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 17 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Illinois District 10

Incumbent Brad Schneider defeated Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee, Joseph Kopsick, and David Rych in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 10 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Brad Schneider (D)	63.9	202,402
		Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee (R)	36.1	114,442
		Joseph Kopsick (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	18
	Submit photo	David Rych (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	12

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 316,874
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Bradley Heinz (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 10

Incumbent Brad Schneider defeated Adam Broad in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 10 on March 17, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Brad Schneider	99.9	79,126
		Adam Broad (Write-in)	0.1	115

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 79,241
= 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

• Andrew Wang (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 10

Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 10 on March 17, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee	100.0	14,877

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,877
= 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.

2012

See also: Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District elections, 2012

Kopsick ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. House to represent Wisconsin's 2nd District. He listed his party affiliation as "Liberty, Sovereignty, Independence, Social Liberalism," and failed to collect the signatures necessary to appear on the ballot.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Joseph Kopsick completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kopsick's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a private security guard based in Waukegan, Illinois. I grew up and attended schools in Lake Bluff and Lake Forest. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2009, with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in political science. I want to restore mutual faith and credit, equal protection for all, and constitutional processes, to our government.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• POUND: Pay Off the U.S. National Debt by 2047. Pay off one trillion dollars of debt per year, by reducing unnecessary military spending, localizing entitlements, and taxing destruction instead of production.
• EMPATHIC: End Medical Patents to Achieve Technologies for Human Immortality Cheaply. Achieve medical price relief through shortening medical patents.
• SKA: Safe Kids Amendment. Protect children, and prepare them for the future, by reforming schools and child trafficking laws at the same time. Split high schools up and bring back shop classes.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Civil liberties, peace, health, environment, immigration, taxes, national debt, child protection

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Attention to detail, ability to understand what people working paycheck to paycheck are going through, and experience working in unnecessarily politicized professions (in my case, private security guard, and non-unionized janitor for a school).

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I have a keen attention to detail, which is evident in my research and prolific writing on many political topics. I am also a good organizer, and I know what it's like to live on a small amount of money. I am debt-averse in my personal life, and I hope to make use of my success in avoiding debt to continue coming up with more ideas about how we could pay off the national debt more rapidly without hurting the economy and people who are struggling.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like to be remembered as "the referee of Congress"; to remind people of the original agreement in the Constitution. The federal government should manage only money, mail, and military, until it can prove itself competent to handle topics like health, environment, land management, retirement, labor and wages, energy, and education. I would also like to be remembered as the congressman who helped set the federal government on a track to pay off the $27 trillion national debt we have racked up, and as the congressman who exposed the chaotic and nonsensical state of child trafficking laws. I would also like to be remembered as the congressman who proposed changes to business subsidy rules, patent laws, and the tax code, which resulted in vast reductions in consumer prices and the abolition of unnecessary taxes that made goods needlessly expensive.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I remember Election Day in 1992. My kindergarten had a mock election. I voted for Ross Perot because I thought he looked like a nicer person than George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

"Iris's Song For Us (Version Two)" by Vashti Bunyan

What process do you favor for redistricting?

Instead of "bipartisan" or "non-partisan" redistricting - which are for the most part controlled by the two major parties - computer algorithms should determine the locations and shapes of districts. Mathematical computer models can be built, and proposed examples already have been designed, which would create districts without regard for the political composition of the area. The smallest districts would be in the most highly populated parts of cities, and they would be much rounder than the gerrymandered districts we are seeing today.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

It has the power of the purse; the power to originate spending bills. It also has the power to vote on whether to impeach the president, and it votes when there is not a clear winner in the Electoral College. The House also cannot influence the issues of health and labor anywhere near as directly as the Senate can.

If you are not a current representative, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

Yes. To reform taxes and debt, I would like to join either the Budget Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, and/or the Appropriations Committee. Homeland Security and Agriculture are other committees I think I could be helpful in, but ultimately I would like to become a U.S. Senator, so I can help solve problems related to health and aging. There are no House committees on those topics, but I would like to eventually join the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Senate Select Committee on Aging.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

U.S. Representatives should be limited to either four lifetime terms of two years, or to two or three consecutive terms. U.S. Senators should be limited to two consecutive terms, or three lifetime terms. U.S. Supreme Court justices should be limited to 20 years, the average number of years a Supreme Court justice has historically lived after being confirmed to the court.

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.

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Footnotes

[show]

Illinois' current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Tammy Duckworth (D)

Dick Durbin (D)

Representatives

District 1

Jonathan Jackson (D)

District 2

Robin Kelly (D)

District 3

Delia Ramirez (D)

District 4

Jesus Garcia (D)

District 5

Mike Quigley (D)

District 6

Sean Casten (D)

District 7

Danny Davis (D)

District 8

Raja Krishnamoorthi (D)

District 9

Jan Schakowsky (D)

District 10

Brad Schneider (D)

District 11

Bill Foster (D)

District 12

Mike Bost (R)

District 13

Nikki Budzinski (D)

District 14

Lauren Underwood (D)

District 15

Mary Miller (R)

District 16

Darin LaHood (R)

District 17

Eric Sorensen (D)

Democratic Party (16)

Republican Party (3)