About Jehan Gordon-Booth

Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth is a community activist, mother and full-time legislator serving the people of Illinois’ 92nd district. She is a proud daughter of Peoria and the first African-American woman ever to be elected to represent the central region of the state in the Illinois General Assembly. In January of 2015, she became, again the first African-American woman from Central Illinois to serve the state as Assistant Majority Leader of the House Democratic Party. Rep. Gordon-Booth is still a proud resident of Peoria where she lives today with her best friend and husband Coach Derrick Booth and their two year old daughter, Jianna. Among her colleagues Rep. Gordon Booth is regarded as kind, level-headed, and they even dare say “bipartisan.”

Before she ever served in the House, Rep. Gordon-Booth lived out her platform of making quality education real and accessible through her work. After graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she served as one of District 69's youngest school board members. It’s because she truly understands that communities are willing to work for them. So, she has. In the General Assembly, she’s been working to pass legislation aimed at advancing educational opportunity for kids across the entire state of Illinois with a host of bills that have been signed into law.

Fully understanding the work needed to effectively deal with the issue of safety and mass incarceration Rep. Gordon-Booth passed the largest and most comprehensive criminal justice reform bill, SB 2872--The Neighborhood Safety Act in 2017. While she always had the goal of making communities stronger and safer, her work extends far beyond education and criminal justice reform. Understanding the importance of industry, production and public-private partnerships, Rep. Gordon-Booth negotiated the first Historic Tax Credit in the state of Illinois’ history. The credit has already created hundreds of jobs and spurred development projects to revitalize parts of Peoria's community.

Currently, pushing for a state budget and reforming and revitalizing our state’s outdated criminal justice system is Rep. Gordon-Booth’s primary focus. It is her commitment, as a legislator, to preserving people's dignity and their ability to contribute to their communities which have kept her motivated and pushing for reform in areas of: education, tax code, sentencing regulation, re-entry programming, and economic opportunity. In the past, Rep. Gordon-Booth has crafted state legislation that served as a nationwide model for public policy. With the folks of Illinois in mind, this time, she hopes to do it again.

Rep. Gordon-Booth absolutely dislikes listening to her own bio. But she has invited each of us, and she invites all of you who are passionate about what you heard and who want to help build our communities to reach out to her. To get and stay involved in the work that she’s doing. You can follow her on Facebook at RepJehanGordonBooth, or Instagram at JehanGordonBooth.

Rep. Gordon-Booth wrote once that if there’s anything her mother Annie Jo Gordon taught her, it's that “bettering a community take’s everybody's help.” So she appreciates you, and every day she hopes to make her service a thank you for what you are doing.