On the record
An accountability investigation · Rep. Jeff Keicher (R‑Sycamore)
State Farm's man in Springfield
He sells insurance. He votes with the insurers. Their PACs keep funding his campaign.
An accountability investigation · Rep. Jeff Keicher (R‑Sycamore)
He sells insurance. He votes with the insurers. Their PACs keep funding his campaign.
Jeff Keicher has owned a State Farm insurance agency in Sycamore since 2006.
Four times he voted against letting the state rein in excessive insurance rates — twice on bills that are now law.
About $141,329 from insurers, agents, and their PACs since 2017 — including $5,500 nine days before the first rate-review vote.
After State Farm raised Illinois homeowners rates an average 27.2%, the House voted on giving the Department of Insurance authority to review and refund excessive premiums. Keicher, a State Farm agent, voted no. The motion failed 56-37-6, four short of passage.
ILGA House Roll Call, HB 3799 concurrence, Oct 30 2025 ↗The bill passed the House 66-40-2. Keicher voted no on the floor and, that morning, in the Executive Committee. On the floor he said he was voting no because, as a State Farm agent, he has a conflict of interest on insurance bills.
ILGA House Roll Call, SB 1486 3rd Reading, Mar 19 2026 ↗Passed the House 70-38-1. Keicher voted no.
ILGA House Roll Call, SB 714 3rd Reading, May 27 2026 ↗The final version of the homeowners bill — banning excessive rates, requiring 60 days' notice of increases over 10%, and barring insurers from shifting out-of-state losses onto Illinois homeowners — passed the House 72-38 on May 27, 2026. Keicher voted no. It became Public Act 104-0752.
ILGA House Roll Call, HB 4273 concurrence, May 27 2026 ↗The industry has given to Friends of Jeff Keicher in 95 installments since 2017 — before and after these votes. The dates above are the contributions closest to the rate-review votes. "Insurance industry" includes insurers, insurance-agent associations, and insurer-employee PACs.
“I feel I have a conflict of interest if I even consider voting ‘yes.’”
“We're taking a step today that … is going to take an anticonsumer tilt.”
"Every single one of your constituents who has a homeowner's policy will pay extra."
He calls himself NIU's "relentless advocate."
Then he voted no on 7 straight state budgets. The six with published figures (FY21–FY26) carried about $575 million in Northern Illinois University operating funds for his own district — and NIU's funding rose in most of them anyway. The budget table ↗