Hon. Cheri Bustos

Partner and Co-Chair; Mercury Public Affairs; Former US Representative, IL-17

Former Congresswoman Cheri Bustos is a Partner and Co-Chair at Mercury Public Affairs, working across its Washington, D.C., office while also leading Mercury’s operations in Illinois. As a former senior member of House leadership with a long career in both the public and private sectors, Bustos brings decades of experience in politics, journalism, healthcare and communications.

While representing Illinois’ 17th Congressional District for five terms, Bustos held powerful roles in leadership, serving as Co-Chair of the Steering and Policy Committee; Co-Chairing the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, playing a key role in Democrats taking the majority; and chairing the General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee.

Bustos served on the House Committee on Agriculture for her full tenure in office; six years on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and four years on the House Appropriations Committee. While on the House Appropriations Committee, she served on some of the most powerful subcommittees: Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; Energy and Water; and Military Construction and Veterans Administration.

Outside of her public service work, Bustos has helped advance the next generation of Democratic leaders, protecting the Democratic House majority in the 2020 election cycle as Chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). In that role, she helped raise a record-breaking one-third of a billion dollars for the organization.

Additionally, Bustos is the founder of Build the Bench, a program focused on identifying and training individuals interested in running for office at all levels. She is also a Founding Board Member of Elect Democratic Women, which has raised more than $35 million in the last few election cycles.

Bustos was a Spring 2023 Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics and a Fall 2024 Fellow at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at University of Kansas.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland in College Park, and a Master’s in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield.