Daniel Jon Ugaste is a lawyer, politician and Republican member of the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...

who has represented the 65th district since 2019. He has served as Assistant Minority Leader in the House since 2025. The district, located in the western

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. ...

, includes all or parts of Campton Hills, Elburn,

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Lily Lake, South Elgin, St. Charles, and Wayne.

Education and law career

Ugaste earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Lake Forest College Lake Forest College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducatio ...

and a

juris doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

DePaul University College of Law DePaul University College of Law is the law school of DePaul University, a private Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 125 full- and part-time faculty members and enrolls more than 500 students in its Juri ...

. In the 1990s, Ugaste was an attorney for

Seyfarth Shaw Seyfarth Shaw LLP ( ) is an international AmLaw 100 law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in Chicago in 1945 by Henry Seyfarth, Lee Shaw, and Owen Fairweather, Seyfarth Shaw originally focused on the area of labor and employment ...

, Limited Liability Partnership and Wiedner & McAuliffe, Limited Company. Ugaste is a

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

in the Nyhan, Bambrick, Kinzie and Lowry Law Firm and specializes in

workers' compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

. He worked as a member of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Medical Fee Advisory Board and as a technical advisor to Bruce Rauner's Office on Workers' Compensation Reform.

Illinois House of Representatives

In 2014, Ugaste ran for the Illinois House of Representatives. He was defeated in the Republican primary by

Steven Andersson Steven A. Andersson (born August 15, 1964) is a former Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives representing the 65th district. The 65th district is located in northwestern Kane County. Andersson earned his bachelor's degree ...

. In 2018, Anderson retired from the legislature. Ugaste was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, defeating Democratic candidate Richard Johnson, the President of the Elgin Teachers Union. In 2020, Ugaste was re-elected, defeating activist Martha Paschke. Ugaste won a third term in 2022, defeating scientist and small business owner Linda Robertson. Ugaste won a fourth term in 2024, when he faced off against Robertson a second time. In the 104th General Assembly, Ugaste became Assistant Minority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Committees

In the 103rd General Assembly, Ugaste served on the following committees: Financial Institutions & Licensing (Republican Spokesperson); Judiciary - Civil (Republican Spokesperson); Labor & Commerce (Republican Spokesperson); Police & Fire Committee; Prescription Drug Affordability; Public Utilities; Civil Procedure & Tort Liability (Sub-Co-Chairperson); Commercial & Property (Sub-Co-Chairperson); Business & Industry Innovation.

Political positions

Ugaste supports term limits of “no shorter than 12 years” for members of the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

Personal life

Ugaste lives in

and is married. He has three adult daughters and six grandchildren.

Electoral history

References

External links

Campaign Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ugaste, Dan 1963 births 21st-century members of the Illinois General Assembly DePaul University College of Law alumni Illinois lawyers Lake Forest College alumni Living people People from Geneva, Illinois Republican Party members of the Illinois House of Representatives