Senator Robert Peters ** represents **Illinois's 13th District in the State Senate, a seat previously held by Barack Obama. Born in 1985 and deaf with a significant speech impediment, he was adopted by a social worker mother and a civil rights lawyer father, experiences that exposed him to the impacts of the war on drugs and inspired his lifelong commitment to criminal justice reform, environmental justice, racial justice, economic justice, and public safety.

Education and Political Experience

Peters earned a B.A. in Social Sciences from Kansas State University. The Great Recession challenged him with job struggles and the loss of both parents within 18 months, leading him into political organizing, including work on campaigns, minimum wage increases, taxing the wealthy, and co-founding the Coalition to End Money Bond.

Appointed to the State Senate in 2019, he serves as Chair of the Senate Labor Committee and Majority Caucus Whip. Notable achievements include leading the effort to end cash bail in Illinois—the first state to do so—passing worker protections for Black and Latino temporary employees, eliminating private detention centers, expanding SNAP benefits for college students, improving HIV care access for minors, increasing accountability in foster care and corrections, and championing investments in tourism, small businesses, and education. A Democratic Socialist and former Bernie Sanders delegate, he lives on Chicago's South Side with his wife Grace.