In an upset, Joyce defeated Kankakee County Republican Party chairman and incumbent Senator Edward McBroom in the general election.
In 1985, he led a group of Illinois farmers in lobbying for more favorable policy speaking with Paul Volcker and working with Senator Alan J. Dixon and Congressmen Robert H. Michel and Edward Rell Madigan on a relief package.
[5] In the early 1990s, Joyce sponsored legislation to mandate all gasoline sold in the state contain 10% ethanol in an effort to help corn growers and rural counties.
[9] He also supported the building of a proposed Chicago south suburban airport in the southland region with an emphasis on its benefits for Kankakee County.
[11] He voted in favor of a measure that would ban the sale, manufacture and import of semiautomatic weapons and their possession with a large capacity magazine.