Cheryl Lea Bustos (/ˈbuːstoʊs/ BOOST-ohss; née Callahan; born October 17, 1961) is an American journalist, healthcare executive, and politician who served as the U.S. representative from Illinois's 17th congressional district from 2013 to 2023.

A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first woman elected to Congress from her district in the northwestern part of the state, anchored by the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and partially including Peoria and Rockford.

[20] In February 2010, Bustos secured state and federal money to purchase a $40,000 electronic welcome sign that was placed at the border of East Moline.

[22] In January 2011, she expressed interest in charging residents who do not recycle extra fees to lower the city's landfill costs.

[28] Bustos was endorsed by about two dozen unions active in the 17th congressional district, including the Illinois AFL–CIO, AFSCME and the United Auto Workers.

[31] Durbin asked State Senator Dave Koehler and Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp to drop out of the race to clear the way for Bustos, a close family friend of his.

"[36] In the general election, Bustos was one of 39 candidates considered to be the most viable challengers against Republican incumbents to benefit from "Red to Blue" program offered by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"[41] After entering the House, Bustos made national headlines by "interviewing colleagues and posting the short videos on her personal Snapchat account.

[43] In a 2012 interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board, Bustos expressed support for legislation that would cut congressional pay by 10%.

[50][51] Bustos was reelected to the House in the 2016 general election, defeating Republican nominee Patrick Harlan, an insurance agent,[52] truck driver, and local Tea Party activist.

[53] In a long profile of Bustos on May 12, 2017, Politico noted that in 2016 she was the only Democrat to win a House seat by a more than 20-point margin in a district that Trump also won.

"If Democrats are going to wrest control of the House from Republicans, argue many party strategists, it's going to happen in large part by doing more of whatever it is Bustos is doing three hours west of Chicago in her nearly 7,000-square-mile district of small towns and soybean fields", Politico wrote.

"[7] In the 2018 election, Bustos was challenged by Bill Fawell, a real estate broker who attracted media attention for his conspiracy claims that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job perpetrated by the U.S.

[61] During the election for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in January 2019, Bustos received 4 votes, from Joe Cunningham of South Carolina; Jared Golden of Maine; Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey; and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, instead of their party's nominee, Nancy Pelosi.

[67][68] Bustos has said she wants to create a "manufacturing triangle" connecting Peoria, the Quad Cities, and Rockford and anchored by Caterpillar, John Deere, and the aerospace industry, respectively.

She supports putting in place job-training programs at area community colleges to better prepare workers for skilled jobs in manufacturing.

[71] During a debate, Bustos opposed the three trade agreements approved by Congress in 2011 for being "NAFTA-style" and said they would result in job losses for Illinois.

"With this agreement, Iran's stockpiles of enriched uranium will be reduced and the country will be opened up to strict transparency and monitoring, including robust on-the-ground nuclear inspectors".

[76] In a December 2016 interview, Bustos said she would "make every attempt to work with President Donald Trump where we can find common ground" but "if he takes us down a dark place, then we're going to have a fight on our hands.

[79] Responding in 2016 to People v. Turner, Bustos said that there is a need for more women in Congress in order to bring greater attention to the issue of sexual assault.

[80] In February 2018, Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan announced that a group of three legislators, including Bustos, would serve on an independently funded panel that would "lead a statewide discussion about the role of women in the Democratic party and how to 'change the culture of politics.

[82] Bustos was one of six House Democrats to vote against the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act to legalize cannabis at the federal level in 2020.