SPRINGFIELD — Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch reluctantly broke his silence Wednesday on his decision to strip a Democratic lawmaker of key caucus duties two months ago, acknowledging for the first time that the rights of “victims” were involved, while declining to discuss specifics.
Welch’s comments came while he spoke with reporters outside his state Capitol office following a lengthy House session. Welch made it clear he hoped to focus on the day’s legislative victories, including the House’s passage of a bill aiding the Chicago Bears’ proposed move to Arlington Heights. When asked whether state Rep. Harry Benton of Plainfield should resign, Welch initially tried to sidestep the question.
“We’re not going to have that topic of conversation today. We’re going to talk about what happened here today,” Welch said. But pressed by reporters, Welch offered a bit more.
“At the proper time, that information will come out. So there is a process in place. You’ve heard me say this before. People are entitled to due process,” Welch said. “There is a process in place that guarantees every one of us due process. And we’re going to allow that process to play out, and I think part of that is not coming out and speaking to the press about something, and folks are entitled to due process.”
It was Welch’s first public comment on Benton’s status, a silence that drew criticism from the Illinois House Republican Organization, the House GOP’s campaign arm. The GOP group has accused Welch of failing to be transparent about why he removed Benton from his committee assignments and other caucus duties in February.
Last month, the organization cited a Feb. 25 report from “The Illinoize,” a newsletter about Illinois politics, that reported multiple sources attributed Benton’s removal to sexual harassment allegations. A source familiar with the situation separately confirmed to the Tribune that the allegations were of a sexual harassment nature. Another source told the newspaper that House Democrats were informed privately that the matter was being handled by the legislative inspector general’s office, which has declined to comment.
Also on Feb. 25, according to records obtained by the Tribune through an open-records request, Welch sent a memo to the House clerk, John Hollman, asking him to remove Benton from eight House committees — Child Care Accessibility & Early Childhood Education, Insurance, Labor & Commerce, Police & Fire, Prescription Drug Affordability & Accessibility, Public Utilities, Transportation: Vehicles & Safety and Veterans’ Affairs.
Welch also directed Hollman to remove Benton from two subcommittees, one dealing with domestic and international commerce and the other with utilities, the memo said.
Welch’s predecessor as House speaker, Michael Madigan, lost his grip on his caucus for his poor handling of sexual harassment allegations made by a campaign worker against one of his top lieutenants. Madigan himself was not accused of sexual harassment, but Madigan was forced to defend his leadership before he resigned from the House amid a sweeping federal corruption investigation that later landed him in federal prison.
Welch declined to go into detail with reporters on Wednesday about why he took action on Benton, but he alluded to the importance of protecting victims’ rights, saying, “But (I) also want to underscore something very important, and we shared this with the caucus. We also have to talk about victims, and what they’re entitled to.”
“Coming out and talking to reporters about a process that’s ongoing is not the proper thing to do. And so, we’re going to respect due process. We are going to respect victims. We’re going to respect people’s rights,” Welch said.
Benton, who has worked as an ironworker and served in the House since 2023, faces Republican Gabby Shanahan in a November rematch. In 2024, Benton won that race by more than 2,300 votes out of more than 53,000 ballots cast, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
It’s not the first time that Welch, a Democrat from Hillside who has been House speaker since 2021, has stripped members of their caucus duties.
Last year, Democratic state Rep. Fred Crespo of Hoffman Estates lost his committee chairmanship and was disinvited from internal caucus meetings after working on a budget plan outside of party channels during the final weeks of the spring legislative session.
In 2023, Welch removed then-longtime Democratic state Rep. Mary Flowers of Chicago from leadership after she was accused of repeatedly engaging in inappropriate behavior that included saying a Democratic staffer looked like Adolf Hitler.
