Republican Candidate for United States Congress from Illinois Eighth District

Joe was born and raised in the heart of the Eighth District, growing up in a family of nine children. He has been a lifelong advocate for limited government and a vibrant private sector. Now, troubled by the recent rapid growth of government spending and involvement in our lives, he’s returning to his roots and running for the U.S. Congress. He intends to be a loud, forceful voice against this expanding government which will stifle economic growth and bankrupt our children and grandchildren.

Joe Walsh has been a hardworking American from the jump – and he’s dedicated his professional life to service. He has advocated on behalf of a wide range of public policy issues and causes, most notably advancing market-based solutions to education reform and urban poverty. Rather than spending time in an ivory tower speculating on theory, he has had his boots on the ground for a number of relevant companies, causes and disciplines.

• in inner-city Chicago, he worked with Jobs for Youth, teaching basic academic and job skills to high school dropouts
• he advanced the issue of school choice while working for The Heartland Institute, a Midwest free market think tank
• he was the Executive Director of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund overseeing an annual budget of $2M. The fund is a Chicago-based privately funded school voucher program which gives high school scholarships to low-income students
• he helped launch the Legislative Education Action Drive and Americans for Limited Government organizations, national organizations working to get fiscally conservative state legislators elected in targeted states and advance the causes of limited government
• he raised funds for two of the nation’s leading school choice organization, the American Education Reform Council and the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation
• he continues to raise funds and build support for the Fabretto Children’s Foundation, an international charity which uses education and micro-enterprise to deliver Nicaraguan children from poverty raising nearly $1M the past five years: the

For the past couple of years, Joe has worked with Ravenswood Advisors, a Chicago-based boutique investment banking group focused on raising early stage investment capital for new and small businesses and entrepreneurs. He consulted with the United Republican Fund, an Illinois-based state PAC helping to elect Republican state legislators.

Joe has run spirited campaigns for elected office twice, first as a Republican candidate for the US Congress in 1996 and then as a Republican candidate for the Illinois Statehouse in 1998.

Joe has a BA in English from the University of Iowa and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. He has taught American government and American history at the community college level for a number of years. He and his wife Helene have five children.