Thomas Clatterbuck

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

Thomas Clatterbuck

Republican Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

March 19, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

University of Illinois, Springfield, 2016

Personal

Birthplace

Indianapolis, Ind.

Religion

Christian

Profession

Student

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Personal Facebook

Thomas Clatterbuck (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 13th Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on March 19, 2024.

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

Biography

Thomas Clatterbuck was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois, Springfield in 2016. As of February 2024, he is attending the University of Illinois College of Law. His career experience includes working as an independent journalist.

Elections

2024

See also: Illinois' 13th Congressional District election, 2024

Illinois' 13th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 19 Republican primary)

Illinois' 13th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 19 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Illinois District 13

Incumbent Nikki Budzinski defeated Joshua Loyd and Chibu Asonye in the general election for U.S. House Illinois District 13 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nikki Budzinski (D)	58.1	191,339
		Joshua Loyd (R)	41.9	137,917
		Chibu Asonye (Independent) (Write-in)	0.1	244

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 329,500
= 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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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Bradley Horges Jr. (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 13

Incumbent Nikki Budzinski advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Illinois District 13 on March 19, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nikki Budzinski	100.0	32,314

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 32,314
= 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

• Layne Willhite (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 13

Joshua Loyd defeated Thomas Clatterbuck in the Republican primary for U.S. House Illinois District 13 on March 19, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Joshua Loyd	55.9	15,633
		Thomas Clatterbuck	44.1	12,320

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 27,953
= 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 did not identify endorsements for Clatterbuck in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Thomas Clatterbuck completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Clatterbuck'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 have lived in Central Illinois for more than 30 years. I am currently a third year law student at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, and am expected to graduate May 2024. I have worked at the Land of Lincoln Legal Aid clinic as well as for the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus. Before law school, I worked as a journalist in Springfield.

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?

• Seizing the moment: America is experiencing a major technological revolution with things like artificial intelligence and self driving vehicles. Unlike many other technological revolutions, we can see it happening, and know what the potential risks and benefits are. That means we can do more than sit back and watch what happens. We have a chance to choose if and how these technologies become part of our world. But if we wait, those choices will be made for us. We have to take an active role in choosing our future.
• Solution Oriented: No one reading this website is confused about whether or not America is facing challenges today. But what we tend to lose sight of is the fact we have the tools to fix these problems and make a better world for ourselves and our children. Plenty of ink has been spilled on who is to blame. My campaign is focused on finding solutions to the current challenges.
• Building Bridges: American politics is extremely polarized today. There is plenty of ugliness to go around in politics. My campaign isn't going to add to it.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Education, technology, tax policy, and the environment.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Confucius. His work was based on the idea that orderly government is important and achievable. He was very concerned with doing everything the right way, and encouraged others to do likewise.

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

Curiosity: There is no job that requires a wider breadth of knowledge than being an elected official, because the job touches every area of life. Even if you can't become an expert yourself, you at least have to know enough to know if the person you are talking to is an expert or not. If you do not have a hunger for knowledge, you'll never build your knowledge base sufficiently to do the job well.

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

I think the business of government is worth taking seriously. I think statecraft is something you can be good at, and have made education and career choices so that I can be good at it.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Members of Congress have two major responsibilities and one major opportunity. They need to be responding to the needs of their constituents in the form of constituent services. They also need to make sure the basic functions of government, such as passing spending bills, are done on time. The opportunity is that when that other work is done, you get to advance policy that you are passionate about and raise the unique issues that drove you to seek office in the first place.

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

Like many millennials, the 9/11 terrorists attack. I was 9 and in 4th grade.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I was a page at the Jacksonville Public Library for a total of 12 months across two summers.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Harrison Bergeron

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

Chamber of Reflection

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes. Like any other complex organization, government has its own rules, procedures, and quirks. Having experience in other fields can be valuable for the perspective it brings, but you have to understand the rules of the game you are playing.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Our greatest challenge is establishing a regulatory framework for emerging technologies like AI and self driving vehicles. These technologies are going to have a major impact in all areas of society, and the frameworks that are adopted now are going to shape the world long into the future, in much the same way the decisions we made and didn't make around the internet 30 years ago still shape our lives today. We need to ensure the federal government is taking proactive steps to regulate these technologies so we have a choice rather than letting a handful of companies dictate how these industries will operate.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

Yes. It is long enough for work to get done, but short enough to hold members accountable to the voters.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I am opposed to term limits. Since there are no term limits on staffers, bureaucrats, or lobbyists, putting term limits on the House members ensures the people responsible for making decisions are captive to people whom the voters cannot hold accountable.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

Sam Rayburn

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

In a nation as polarized as ours currently is, compromise is necessary to deal with gridlock. However, if members of Congress did more work on their bills before they were submitted, much of the gridlock we see could be avoided.

The Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. What role would this power play in your priorities if elected?

That power looks like should be very valuable for the House. The idea that you could impact policy by holding up the budget is intoxicating. It is also demonstrably false. It looks like it should work and almost never does.

How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?

The House is too important an institution to spend any time posturing. The investigative power, like all other powers, should be used to advance the business of the House in ways that will help the people and respect the prestige of the House. All investigations should have a clear, achievable endgame.

What committees interest you?

Education, Agriculture, and Science, Space and Technology

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

Members of Congress and their families should be required to put their money in a blind trust or be otherwise firewalled so that there is not even the appearance of insider trading. Disclosure, while important, is solving the wrong problem.

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

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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.

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Thomas Clatterbuck campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	U.S. House Illinois District 13	Lost primary	$45,596	$42,939
Grand total			$45,596	$42,939
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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Candidate

U.S. House Illinois District 13

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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)