Skylar Duensing, a 25-year-old Republican from Oak Lawn, is running for the Republican nomination in Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, seeking to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten in the 2026 election.
A former student-athlete and graduate of Joliet Catholic Academy, Duensing attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he said he was recruited as a quarterback for the school’s Division I football team, and Liberty University.
A multigeneration Illinoisan, Duensing said his family’s roots in the state date to the 1600s.
“I’ve got a big stake in this game,” Duensing told South Cook News. “My family’s blood, sweat and tears are in this ground.”
While in college, he said he founded The United States Patriots Society and The American Environmental Research Organization, as well as a chapter of Turning Point USA.
“I started a Turning Point Action (chapter), which was Students for Trump at the time…..and with Charlie (Kirk), with this organization, we built them into the most successful chapters—still are today—for Turning Point in the entire country, their flagship chapters,” he said.
Duensing cited Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, as an inspiration and said he hopes to continue efforts to engage young conservatives.
“It’s been an experience of being able to advocate for conservative policy and conservative causes in hyper-liberal areas. I always kind of felt called to run for the office,” he said.
Kirk began his political activism in the Chicago suburbs, organizing youth events as a teenager at Wheeling High School and later launching Turning Point USA from a garage in Lemont. He was killed Sept. 10, 2025, at age 31 while speaking at a university event in Utah.
He was fatally shot during the kickoff of his “Prove Me Wrong” campus tour in front of a crowd of about 3,000 and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
“I was actually in a meeting, and I saw on my phone a call saying Charlie’s been assassinated,” Duensing said. “I prayed on it and said, that’s it. I just felt called to do it, and I’m going to do this to carry forward. It ticked me off, and I said, ‘no, I’m going to do this now in honor and remembrance of Charlie’s legacy.’”
Although he entered the race six weeks after it began, Duensing said he submitted more than 3,200 signatures to qualify for the ballot, exceeding the 850 required.
Duensing will appear on the March 17 Republican primary ballot against Niki Conforti, who lost to Casten in 2024 by a margin of more than 30,000 votes, 196,647 to 166,116, according to election results.
The winner of the Republican primary is expected to face Casten, who also faces a Democratic primary challenge from Joey Ruzevich, in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.
In an October 2025 column, journalist Ray Hanania wrote that “Casten can easily be beaten” if a challenger runs a more substantive campaign focused on voters.
“Sean Casten voted with Joe Biden 99% of the time,” Duensing said. “A big topic for my campaign is highlighting the way he’s voted. It’s very simply putting communities and our families first.”
Casten has been described by some Republicans as one of the more divisive voices in Congress.
The Illinois congressional delegation was divided on a House resolution honoring Kirk. Casten was among three Illinois Democrats who did not vote as the measure, introduced by House Speaker Mike Johnson, passed despite opposition from dozens of Democrats who objected to language praising Kirk.
Casten also commented publicly about the alleged suspect in the killing.
“The more that comes out the more this doesn’t fit into any tidy narrative other than a young man who made a bad choice with a gun,” Casten posted on X about alleged suspect Tyler Robinson.
Prosecutors said Robinson sent text messages shortly before the shooting that read: “I’ve had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred.”
Duensing described his campaign as part of what he calls the “Trump Kirk MAGA Red International Movement,” combining President Donald Trump’s policies with Kirk’s political approach.
He said Republicans in Illinois should embrace Trump’s platform rather than distance themselves from it.
“Things like fiscal responsibility, America First principles and economic prosperity,” Duensing said. “I think, too, is also restoring our status throughout the entire world, especially in our hemisphere and domestically, in terms of policy, as our dominance as the world superpower, as the shining city on a hill, as founders have talked about, and coupling that with the godly values of Charlie Kirk.”
Duensing outlined his campaign focus on federal spending, immigration enforcement and voter identification requirements.
“We continue to spend money the way that we are as a government and are approaching $40 trillion in debt,” he said. “If we continue to spend money that way, my generation—and especially people my age and my children’s children—will inherit that burden. It’ll be debt slavery with the way that we’re spending money.”
He also highlighted issues affecting younger voters, including student debt, tuition costs and housing affordability.
“Ask yourself as a young person, where do you want to see yourself?” he said. “Where do you want to see this country and your family in five or ten years? Do you want to inherit the great American dream or the great American nightmare?”
Duensing emphasized that his campaign supports stricter immigration enforcement and border security.
“Overwhelmingly, Americans know that we should have secure borders, otherwise you don’t have a country,” he said. “We should have safe communities, and it’s not a responsible use of taxpayer dollars to continue funding the ongoing crisis of illegal immigration.”
He said restoring what he described as moral leadership in Washington is another reason he is running for office.
“A big reason why I’m running for office is to restore moral fortitude in Washington, D.C., godly values, wholesome values that put our families first—the values of faith, family and freedom,” Duensing said. “To restore unwavering resolve for the American people. So many of our politicians, as you look now, have been bought off by special interests, certain lobbyists and also by international influence.”
Duensing noted that voter outreach is a key part of his broader effort to expand Republican participation in the state.
“We’re going after 1.5 million unregistered voters who are legal citizens,” he said. “We’re targeting those voters in every swing county and every color county we’ve identified in Illinois.”
