Meet Don Tracy
Don Tracy is a strong leader from Central Illinois who has spent his career fighting for small businesses and working families.
Don has been an attorney for several decades and is a Senior Counsel at Brown, Hay & Stephens, the oldest law firm in Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln famously first practiced law. Don previously owned and operated a law firm in Springfield, with a satellite office in his hometown of Mt. Sterling, with his sister-in-law, Senator Jil Tracy. He has also served as both in-house and outside counsel for family businesses.
Public service is important to Don. He has served in leadership positions in several civic and professional organizations, including as Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, Chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board, Secretary of the Illinois Bar Foundation, President of the Sangamon County Bar Association, Chairman of the Illinois Corporate Acts Advisory Committee, President of the Abraham Lincoln Association, President of the Oak Ridge Cemetery Board, and President of the Dana Thomas House Foundation. He has served on numerous local boards and committees, including for the Frontiers International-Springfield Club, Springfield YMCA, Springfield 1908 Race Riot Commission, Clark-Griffith Little League, and Blessed Sacrament Church. He has also helped raise funds for numerous charitable causes and candidates for public office.
Don learned the value of hard work from an early age, having started working for his family's business when he was 10 years old. He started in the warehouse, worked college summers as a truck driver, worked through law school as an outside traveling salesman, and eventually served as General Outside Counsel for over 40 years. His family's business and its hard-working employees embody the American Dream.
Born in Urbana in Eastern Illinois, raised in Mt. Sterling in Western Illinois, and having raised his own family in Springfield in Central Illinois, Don has deep ties to "downstate Illinois." As the oldest of 12 children, family has always been important to Don. He and his wife, Wanda, have 4 children and 8 grandchildren. Don attended Western Illinois University and holds a Bachelor's in General Business Administration from Arizona State University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Memphis.
U.S. Senators write and vote on federal laws. Each state has two senators, who serve six-year terms. Only the Senate confirms the President's nominees for judges and the cabinet, approves treaties, and holds impeachment trials.