Dan McConchie has served as State Senator for the 26th District since 2016. He is the first paraplegic legislator in Illinois history.

Prior to his election as Leader in 2022, Dan served as a Caucus budget negotiator, advocating for responsible state spending and lower taxes. He currently serves on the Senate Education, Transportation, Insurance, and Labor committees, as well as the Health & Human Services Appropriations committee.

Throughout his tenure as the first paraplegic Illinois legislator, Dan has supported policies and legislation that promote job growth, smaller and smarter government, and ethics reforms to root out corruption. He was instrumental in negotiating an overhaul to the state’s school funding system to ensure more equity and state support to Illinois’ neediest schools. He is a member of the Move Over Task Force that proposes ways to improve and protect law enforcement, other emergency responders and motorists who are stopped on the side of Illinois roads.

Dan joined the Army National Guard on his 17th birthday and served nine years in the infantry and military police. He spent 20 years working in public affairs for national advocacy groups, and two years as an Adjunct Professor at Trinity International University where he taught a graduate-level bioethics and public policy course. He is currently an energy consultant with Verde Solutions, which provides solar and other alternative energy solutions for homes and businesses.

He has a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Central Bible College, and graduated magna cum laude with an M.A. in Christian Thought with an Emphasis in Bioethics from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Dan and his wife, Milena, reside in Hawthorn Woods and have two adult daughters. 

Illinois’ 26th Senate District is in the northwest Chicago suburbs and includes all or parts of Algonquin, Barrington, Lake in the Hills, Lake Zurich, Libertyville, Long Grove, Mundelein, North Barrington, Palatine, Port Barrington, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, South Barrington, Tower Lakes, Vernon Hills, Volo and Wauconda.