Kambium Elijah "Kam" Buckner (born May 12, 1985)[1] is an American politician and attorney who serves as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 26th district.

[6] Buckner began his political career as an aide to Senator Dick Durbin in Washington D.C. from 2007 until 2012 and as an advisor to Mayor Mitch Landrieu in New Orleans from 2012 through 2013.

[6] On January 18, 2019, Buckner was appointed to the Illinois House of Representatives to succeed Christian Mitchell, who left to become a deputy governor in the J.B. Pritzker administration.

In 2023, Edward Robert McClelland of Chicago magazine wrote that, during the 2021–2022 Illinois General Assembly, Buckner played a role in the passage of some of the "most significant legislation", citing his role in the passage of the SAFE-T Act and legislation which will transform the Chicago Board of Education into an elected school board.

[18] In 2023, A.D. Quig of the Chicago Tribune characterized Buckner as an active member of the Illinois House of Representatives, writing that Buckner, Has jumped into some of Springfield’s hottest issues, serving as one of the lead negotiators on the state’s clean energy package and the SAFE-T Act, sponsoring legislation that requires serialization of so-called ghost-guns and that allows college athletes to be paid for use of their name and likeness, and backing legislation creating an elected school board in Chicago.

[6] At the start of the 103rd General Assembly, incoming-Speaker Chris Welch named Buckner to serve as one of eight Assistant Majority Leaders for the seventy-eight member Democratic caucus.

Buckner authored HB 3917[31] to ensure that Chicago Public Schools receive the proper amount of funding based on the need of the students in the district.

He has been a proponent of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education in low-income neighborhoods and co-sponsored legislation to create an elected representative school board in Chicago.

[32] Buckner is the primary sponsor of House Bill 3920 that would make it illegal in Illinois for financial institutions to mail unsolicited, predatory, high-interest loan checks to consumers.

Records compiled by the Chicago Tribune show that this practice dated back to 2006 and led to secret background checks of more than 300 citizens—all without the knowledge or consent of those individuals.

In October 2019, Buckner filed HB 3925[36] that would make it illegal for law enforcement departments throughout the state to conduct background checks on citizens giving public comment at open meetings.

[37] Buckner has also been an outspoken opponent of Red Light and speed cameras, saying that they fundamentally run afoul of due process, the right to face one's accuser and privacy.

He has also spoken out about the influx of these cameras in minority and poverty stricken neighborhoods and House Bill 3927, introduced by Buckner, amends the Illinois Vehicle Code and makes these automated traffic law enforcement systems illegal.

[42] The Illinois State Police came under fire for the massive backlog in processing DNA in murder cases and the FBI was asked to investigate any correlation between the reported occurrences.

In October 2019, Buckner authored and introduced House Bill 3932 which would create the Task Force on Missing and Murdered Chicago Women Act.