Jim Edgar, Illinois’ 1990s-era moderate GOP governor, dies at 79

Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar speaks at a May 28 event in Springfield to dedicate the reading room at the Illinois State Library in his honor. Edgar helped secure funding for the facility when he was secretary of state. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)

Jim Edgar, Illinois’ 38^th governor who served from 1991 to 1999, died Sunday after disclosing an aggressive cancer diagnosis earlier this year. He was 79.

Though he’d been out of power for 26 years — more time than the two decades he spent in office as an elected official — the former governor was still active in Illinois political circles until the end of his life, heading a bipartisan program to develop up-and-coming leaders from across Illinois.

In a statement Sunday, Edgar’s family confirmed he’d died “from complications related to treatment for pancreatic cancer,” a diagnosis he’d made public in February.

“We are deeply grateful for the love, support and kindness so many have shown to Jim and our family over these last several months,” the statement said.

Despite his failing health, Edgar still made public appearances in the last months of his life, including in August at his 2025 Edgar Fellows program in Urbana, though the former governor had to make an emergency room trip during the gathering.

A moderate Republican, Edgar became symbolic of a near-extinct breed of GOP politics in the years since he left office. He wasn’t the only elected Republican in Illinois with a pro-choice stance on abortion, but Edgar and his contemporaries were still in the minority at a time when the GOP was still a powerhouse in state politics.

But as hardline Republican politics became ascendent nationally, the GOP’s power in Illinois dwindled, making Edgar somewhat of a political nomad. The former governor became a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, and last year campaigned with other Republicans for then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful bid for the White House.

Edgar’s bipartisan leadership program and disavowing hard-right figures like Trump made the former governor plenty of allies in the Democratic party, including Gov. JB Pritzker, who said Sunday that he considered Edgar a “friend and mentor.”

“His commitment to reaching across the aisle in service of the people of Illinois undeniably made our state better,” Pritzker said. “Now more than ever, we should channel that spirit and resolve to live as Governor Edgar did: with honesty, integrity, and an enduring respect for all.”

The governor said he would direct flags across Illinois to be lowered to half-staff in honor of Edgar’s passing.

Edgar’s death follows that of his immediate successor, former Gov. George Ryan, in May.

Read more: Former Gov. George Ryan dead at 91; remembered for corruption conviction, halting death penalty | Former governors see 2024 primaries as mostly uneventful

Edgar was born in rural northeast Oklahoma but grew up in Charleston, Illinois. He later attended college in his adopted hometown at Eastern Illinois University, where the future governor was elected student body president.

But that wasn’t his first victory at the ballot box; according to his website, Edgar was in first grade when he ran Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign in his elementary school’s mock election, cementing his lifelong status as a Republican, though his parents were Democrats.

After college, Edgar served as an intern and then staffer for Republican legislative leaders before himself getting elected to the Illinois House in 1976 at age 30. In the middle of Edgar’s second term, then-Republican Gov. Jim Thompson tapped the young lawmaker to become his legislative liaison.

Thompson then appointed Edgar as secretary of state in 1981, an office he held for a decade until he was sworn in as governor in 1991.

In a public appearance in Springfield on May 28 at the Illinois State Library, state leaders honored Edgar’s commitment to literacy and to the processes of government.

At the event, Pritzker told the story of his first meeting with Edgar after Pritzker was elected governor in 2018, just months after the state ended a costly two-year budget impasse between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats in the General Assembly.

“He said one really important thing to me,” Pritzker recalled. “He said: You really only have one critical job as governor of the state of Illinois, and that’s pass a budget.”

But Edgar’s most enduring contribution to the state of Illinois, Pritzker said, could be summed up in a well-known Edgar quote: “To me, the best politics is good government.” Pritzker said it was reflected in Edgar’s decision to maintain many of the staff that were hired by his Democratic predecessor when he became secretary of state.

“That view — that honest loyalty to the people of Illinois — is what makes Jim Edgar an icon no matter what party you belong to,” Pritzker said. “He has not only guided his every move in a bipartisan fashion, but he has also kept true to his own moral compass.”

The event at the state library was called to dedicate a reading room in Edgar’s honor. When he was secretary of state, he said one of his favorite parts of the job was being state librarian. But the library at the time was “hid away” in another building on the Capitol Complex.

“Now, I mean, it was terrible,” he said. “I went over there, and I thought, this is not where it should be.”

Edgar’s political leadership ensured the library would be funded in 1985, then dedicated in 1990.

“I didn’t get to build many buildings,” Edgar quipped. “We were broke at the time.”

Edgar brokered the deal with Thompson and helped advocate for the funding source — a sales tax paid on private auto sales. But, Edgar said, when his team sat down to review the legislation enacting the public works program that year, funding for the library was initially absent.

Ultimately, their staffers connected, and the funding was included. He gave the leaders in attendance advice as the session was slated to conclude just days later.

“But what I want to remind you,” he advised the state leaders in attendance, “don’t think just because they told you a month ago, they’re going to do it. They might forget. So, in the next four days, you better just check on the people who promised you they were going to do these things.”

Edgar was also the lead architect of the state’s 50-year plan to adequately fund pensions by the year 2045. The measure — which has since been dubbed the “Edgar ramp” — was put in place to direct state funds to a pension system that had been shortchanged for decades.

While lawmakers from both parties have criticized the plan, none have put forward a plan to replace it in the three decades since it passed.

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias recalled several of Edgar’s other contributions.

“He made our roads safer by toughening penalties for drunk driving. He spearheaded the effort that requires Illinois drivers to have car insurance. He drafted legislation that made it easier for companies to incorporate in Illinois,” he said at the event. “But his true passion is why we’re all here today: his love for lifelong learning through our libraries.”

As Edgar took the microphone, he quipped about his “chemo hairline,” as well as the party of the state leaders who were singing his praises.

“You know, I’m glad I lived long enough to have that many Democrats say such nice things about me,” he said.

But he closed his remarks with another piece of advice to the people of Illinois: “Make use of this building.”

“Libraries are only good if people are in them,” he said.

The ceremony ended with Edgar shaking hands and admiring the plaque that would be placed outside the reading room’s doors.

“I feel very, very honored today that my name is at least gonna be on the wall here, and people are gonna say, ‘Well, who is that guy?’” he said. “Now in a minute, they’re gonna unveil this plaque. I came here yesterday and looked at it, and I love this plaque. I have hair. And I hope, someday, that we’ll defy medical science, and I’ll have hair again. And I’ll be back.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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