McLean County Times

Desi Anderson, State Senate candidate for Illinois' 46th District, said she is running due to the negative influence career politicians have in the state.

Being a business owner herself and a resident of McLean, the concern and support for the people in the area have become innate in Anderson.

“I had an upbringing that many people cannot relate to and I always dreamed of coming to the United States, admiring what I heard about it as a child," Anderson said. "In every way I am now living the American dream, and it is my heartfelt desire to see that not slip away from people in these current times. I am running to give people hope that their voice matters again, that career politicians do not have to have undue influence on our families. Central Illinois has become home for me and I want to be someone that the great people of this area, big business and small business can entrust to fight for them and care about them on issues that really matter and increasingly directly affect our lives.”

Anderson said she is passionate about serving the residents of Illinois. 

"In less than two decades of my adult life I have watched our beautiful country be transformed for the worse and put on a trajectory that is unsustainable economically, while our liberties have been encroached," Anderson said. "There is a crisis of leadership at the local and state levels in Illinois, who have not only passively allowed this to happen, but have actively caused harm."

Her campaign platform includes issues such as protecting children, liberties, families, communities and veterans.

"As a new mom and small business owner I cannot avoid the fact that if those of us who love our freedom, our neighborhoods, our businesses and our families do not stand up and take our country back from career politicians and anti-American ideals, then my son’s future will look more like the communist world I was born into, than the country I dreamed of coming to," she said. 

She and her husband own an agricultural-tourism venue, a small business in McLean County where they live with their son Vano.

Anderson was adopted after having been raised in the Eastern Bloc of Communist Europe in Bulgaria. She was raised in the Pacific Northwest and later earned a double major degree at Indiana University. She has spent a significant amount of time assisting in efforts in developing countries Uganda, Sudan, Geneva and Guatemala where she has served as a missionary. She later served as a U.S. Congressional Intern, her campaign bio stated.

The newly redrawn district is largely composed of Peoria and East Peoria and most of McLean County in Bloomington-Normal. Between these are smaller rural populations in Washington, Morton, Goodfield, Congerville, Deer Creek and Carlock, according to Ballotpedia.