ABOUT
Ram's Story
Leadership the 8th District deserves
Ram has dedicated his career to advocating for the people of Illinois. As your state senator, he fights for high quality public transportation, child care for working families, and Medicaid for those in need. He is steadfast in his commitment to making life more affordable for all Illinoisians.
An Advocate. An Immigrant. A Leader.
Ram Villivalam was born and raised on Chicago’s Northwest Side, and he still lives there with his wife, Elizabeth, and their sons, Rohan and Lokesh.
As the son of Indian immigrants, Ram knows what it means to struggle and work hard. His parents came to the United States in the 1970s, working minimum-wage jobs to support their family while going back to school. His father worked as a civil engineer for the City of Chicago for more than 25 years, and his mother spent 34 years in public service, mainly at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
Before his election to the State Senate in 2018, Ram worked as an outreach director helping people sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act and organizing job fairs. He then joined SEIU Healthcare, where he advocated for home care access for seniors and people with disabilities, child care for working families, and Medicaid for people who need it.
A Record of Results
As the first Asian American elected to the State Senate, the first South Asian American elected to the Illinois General Assembly, the Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, and Majority Caucus Whip, Ram has taken on some of the most consequential issues:
- Sponsored and passed the Workers Rights Amendment as Illinois became the first state in the nation to enshrine in its Constitution the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain.
- Secured historic reforms and $1.5 billion in investments for Illinois’ public transit systems to save jobs, avoid service cuts, and create a safe, reliable, accessible, environmentally conscious, and integrated public transit system for decades to come.
- Sponsored and passed legislation to allow more than 100,000 rideshare drivers in Illinois to organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
He led the reform of Illinois’s public transit system to cut down commute times, get modern buses that cause less pollution, and ensure Illinoisians can get to go where they need, when they need it. Most recently, he led legislation allowing for rideshare drivers, like those who work for Uber and Lyft, to collectively bargain and fight for fair working conditions.Â
He accelerated the replacement of lead water pipes, getting clean water to more than 677,000 homes and protecting kids from long term learning deficits. Additionally he championed the Workers’ Rights Constitutional Amendment which enshrined union rights into the state constitution.
Committed to Serving You
Ram serves as Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee in addition to serving on the Education, Labor, Licensed Activities, Health and Human Services Appropriations, and the Public Safety and Infrastructure Appropriates Committees.
Ram remains steadfast in his commitment to making life more affordable for all Illinoisians, creating safer communities, reducing gun violence, helping our small businesses grow, addressing climate change, quality education for every child regardless of zip code, and advancing the rights of immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and women.