Bill Brady

A millionaire real estate developer and broker, Brady is a co-owner of Brady Homes, one of Central Illinois' largest home builders, founded by his father, Bill Brady Sr. In early 2014, it was reported that Brady's real estate development business had been sued twice for defaulting on loans.

Brady announced his third bid for Illinois Governor on June 26, 2013. His fellow GOP contenders were businessman Bruce Rauner, state treasurer Dan Rutherford, and Senator Kirk Dillard. Brady's running mate was Maria Rodriguez. She was initially courted by Bruce Rauner as a running mate. Rodriguez carried two terms as mayor of Long Grove, Illinois. Brady was the lowest-funded of the four Republican candidates for the primary election, with only $273,000 in his campaign account at the end of 2013. During his campaign, Brady made several swipes at competitor Bruce Rauner, including comparing Rauner to disgraced and jailed former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Among other things, Brady advocated for pension reform, reducing taxes, reforming worker's compensation, not increasing the minimum wage, and the dismantling of the Illinois State Board of Education. Brady lost the GOP primary at third place with 15% of the vote.

Brady co-sponsored SB 908 – Insurance Without Mandated Coverage - in 2003. SB 908 would have allowed insurance providers to offer plans that do not include coverage otherwise mandated in Illinois law. He voted NO on HB 211 in 2003 – Contraceptive Coverage in Private Health Insurance. HB 211, which became law in 2003, required any private insurance plan that covered prescription drugs and devices to also cover FDA approved contraceptive drugs and devices, but expressly states that nothing in it requires the coverage of abortion services.

Brady has called for cuts to the state's Medicaid program, where he says his proposed forensic audit would reveal fraud, mismanagement and abuse. He also favors switching many Medicaid patients to a managed care system – the type currently administered by many Health Management Organizations (HMOs) – to control the cost of health care.

Brady ran for Governor of Illinois three times and was the Republican Nominee in 2010, but was ultimately unsuccessful in each run.

In the 2010 gubernatorial election, he defeated his closest competitor, State Senator Kirk Dillard, by 193 votes in the GOP primary, and faced incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn and Green Party candidate Rich Whitney in November. Brady's running mate was 28-year-old Jason Plummer, past Chairman of the Madison County Republican Party and, at the time, an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve and vice president in his father's lumber business. Despite winning 98 of Illinois's 102 counties, Brady lost to Quinn by around 32,000 votes out of 3,700,000.

Brady won 98 out of the 102 counties, winning all of the Chicago collar (suburban) counties. However, Quinn's huge win in Cook County which encompasses the Chicago Metropolitan Area, provided a large buffer of votes that Brady could not overcome. On election night, Quinn had an initial, large lead when results from Cook County were the first began to come in. Once suburban and rural precincts reported the vote tallies, Brady narrowed the gap, but Cook County provided enough votes to give the election to Governor Quinn. Brady conceded defeat on the following day, November 3. Quinn's win was ranked by Politico as the 7th biggest upset of the 2010 elections.

A week after winning the Republican primary, Brady introduced a proposed state constitutional amendment on February 10, 2010, defining marriage as between "one man and one woman". The proposed constitutional amendment would also deny validity and recognition to any "uniting of persons of the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnership, or other similar same sex relationship." Although Brady was originally the main sponsor of the amendment, its chief sponsor is now Illinois State Senator John O. Jones, who became co-sponsor with Brady the week following its submission. Brady has stated that he is "concerned that activist judges could overturn our current law protecting this institution". Brady has also stated his opposition to civil unions for gay couples on more than one occasion.

In February 2010, Brady sponsored a bill (SB2999) in the 96th General Assembly that would allow the mass euthanasia of dogs and cats based upon the demands of his constituents in his district. After it received considerable criticism, he retracted his sponsorship and now has said that he would veto any such bill.

Brady ran for governor in 2006. He finished third in the Republican primary, getting about 18% of the vote.

Brady previously served in the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 88th District from 1993 to 2001. He also ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Illinois in 2006, 2010, and 2014.

In 1992, Bill Brady defeated seven term incumbent Gordon Ropp by a razor thin margin in the Republican primary. Ten years later, Brady was appointed to the Illinois Senate in 2002 to succeed John Maitland.

William E. "Bill" Brady Jr. (born May 15, 1961) is a Republican member of the Illinois Senate who has represented the 44th Legislative District since his appointment in May 2002.

Brady was born on May 15, 1961, in Bloomington, Illinois. He graduated from Central Catholic High School and Illinois Wesleyan University.