For the first time since 1983, Mike Madigan will not be leading Democrats in the Illinois House.
Multiple media outlets report the Democratic caucus has chosen suburban Democrat Chris Welch as Madigan’s replacement as House speaker. The final caucus vote was 69-3 with one person not voting. Democrats have a supermajority in both houses of the General Assembly.
Welch will become the first Black person to be Illinois House speaker. He was first elected to the house in 2012.
Madigan was first chosen as House Speaker in January 1983 and has led the House for all but two years. Those two were 1995 until 1997, when Republicans briefly gained a majority in the state house.
Welch had been in the news the last few hours after old news stories resurfaced about a domestic violence incident from 2002. However, Welch said those stories were old and had long since been resolved.
