Rick Heidner is a lifelong Illinoisan. Rick grew up in a small apartment in Chicago's western suburbs, with a hardworking mother who did everything she could to provide for Rick and his brother. From the time he was a young boy, Rick worked to help his mom keep the family afloat.

He delivered newspapers, shoveled snow, was a maintenance worker, created J.J. Peppers Food Stores which built up to 24 stores, and later operated laundromats. Those early years taught Rick responsibility, sacrifice, and exactly what struggling families in Illinois are feeling today.

That background shaped the kind of leader he became. Starting with nothing, Rick built some of Illinois' most recognizable, job-creating businesses: Gold Rush Gaming, Ricky Rocket's Fuel Centers, Prairie State Energy, and Heidner Properties, a commercial real-estate network spanning more than 280 properties across 12 states with over 800 tenants. His businesses directly support thousands of jobs and hundreds of family-owned stores. As a proven businessman, Rick has always built for Illinois, not off of it-refusing to use the state as a political soapbox or exploit its resources for personal gain.

Family remains the center of his life. Rick and his wife, Alisa, have raised five children who now help lead parts of the family business, continuing the legacy of hard work, faith, and opportunity he learned from his mother.

Rick is running for Governor because he understands what Illinois families are facing-because he lived it. Under the failed leadership of JB Pritzker, Illinois has become unaffordable, unsafe, and increasingly impossible for working families, young people, and seniors to stay in the state and thrive. Rick knows what it means to struggle, to build, and to lift others up-and he believes Illinois deserves a governor who reflects those values once again.

He's running to make Illinois safe again, affordable again, and full of opportunity again. A vote for Rick Heidner is a vote for a New Illinois-a vote to defeat JB Pritzker and rebuild a state that works for its people, not against.