The race for Congress in western Illinois.

We speak with Republican challenger Dillan Vancil on The Cities.

[lively music] [music] From now until Election Day, we hope to bring to you each of the candidates running for Congress in the cities.

In this election cycle we've extended invitations to the candidates running in the Illinoi 17th district and Iowa's first district races.

On the Sunda afternoon before Election day, we'll run all of the interviews back to back on WQPT public television.

We're talking about the race for the 17th Congressional District right now in Illinois.

It includes the Illinoi Quad Cities, Galesburg, Galena, Sterling Rock falls, and Monmouth.

It also includes larger cities like Rockford, Moline, Rock Island Bloomington, Normal, and Peoria.

Next week, we're talking to incumbent Democratic Representative Eric Sorensen.

But now we're meeting with Republican challenger Dillan Vancil.

Vance is a native of western Illinois, a former railroad worker, a legislative advocate for worker safety, a small business owner and currently the West Central School Board vice president.

So, Mr.

Bansal, thank you for joining us.

Can you tell me a little bit more about why you're running for the 17th district?

Yeah.

So at the end of the day, I mean, I've got eight and te year old boys here at home, and and we're building something with Dame Fine Coffee and our distributio company and, you know, building that essentially to hand dow to them at some point in time.

And I just, I don't know what that looks like 20, 30 years down the road from now.

And I'm I'm not one that can just sit back and not do anything about it.

So I decided to throw my hat in the ring and, and see what we could d to represent people of the 17th.

Now, you had a primary opponent.

Why do you think that you won the Republican nomination?

You know, I jumped out, I started campaigning pretty much the start of the year in, ‘25.

So I've got, I had quite a bit of time ahead of my primary opponent but also I, I mean, I put over 120,000 miles on the campaign trail at this point, and that's what you have to do.

You have to meet people wherever they're at.

You know, I've been fortunate enough with my background with the railroad.

I was a union official for the state of South Dakota for a few years.

And what I built with my own businesses I think people appreciate that.

And that's kind of where theyre that's where they're wanting to head for representation.

How do you describe yourself politically?

I mean, are you, a Donald Trump, MAGA supporter?

Are you conservative?

Do you consider yoursel more of a moderate Republican?

I am a conservative, but where I, I am not, you know, fall in line MAGA supporter by any means.

But when I say that I' disappointed in our government all the way around, doesn't matte if it's Republican or Democrat.

We quit asking ourselves a representatives a long time ago, what's the best option or wha is best for the American people?

We've gotte so far away from that, and we've we've got to bring that back.

How do you describe, Congress right now?

I mean, it' a Republican controlled Senate and a Republican controlled House.

Are you a critic of the way the legislature has operated?

I am not a fan of them taking a long recess, and we have plenty of things that need to get done.

Right?

And they just have recess until after the election, I think Congress were, don't quote me on this, I think it's somewhere around 75 days this year, but really, it's a part, extremely part time gig, and they're makin almost $200,000 a year to do it.

We gotta get people, we gotta get these guys back to work, and we gotta get get thing back on the straight and narrow.

Well, let's start talking about some of the issues that Congress does face.

And one of the biggest, of course, is the war with Iran.

The president keeps saying that the point of the war is to make sure that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

But the war has gone on far longer than he had promised at the beginning.

What what do you see as the objective?

What does a win for the U.S.

in this?

It's got to come to an end.

And I think, and I agree, Iran cannot have nuclear capabilities.

And the fact that they slaughtered tens of thousands of people and chant Death to America down the streets, that's got to come to an end.

The messaging is the there's the problem of it with with the president, with Donald, um Trump.

So you can't go on media one day and say how we've annihilated everything they have.

No capability is left.

But here we are three months late and we're still dealing with it.

Right?

I just paid, it' I knew this would come up, but I just tried to fill my truck up in Galesburg at Hy-Vee.

I put $200 worth of fuel on my pickup truck, and it still didn't get me a full tank.

People feel that at home, right?

And we've been dealing with it for too long.

It's time to get the straight opened up and get everything turned back around.

You point out the price of gasoline, and some Republicans have called for either a reduction or the temporary elimination of the federal gas tax.

Is that something that you would support?

I'd be all for that.

But we also need to put pressure on J.B.

Pritzker to get rid of the 50 or 60 cents a gallon fuel tax here in Illinois to help get through some of this stuff as well.

Of course, gas ta is just a short term, solution.

What would you see as a long term in order to, make the United States gas prices and fuel prices, and particularly diesel prices, come down?

Yeah.

So we've got to and I think that's wha the administration's doing now.

Obviously, it takes a while to to build some of these refineries and get thing moving in the right direction.

Remember, from 2020 to 2024, we dealt with pretty high gas prices continuously for four years.

So it's unfortunate that we're back in that point now.

But once we get out of this Iran dea that that has to come to an end, we'll start to see fuel prices come back down.

But we've got to see investment in some of these refineries here at home.

Are you a little worried?

Sticking with Iran for a bit longer that it was kind of a go it alone, well with Israel.

But do you think it's damaged to the US as far as other nations, particularly Europe and many of the allies that the US has?

So I, at the end of the day, Republicans ran in ‘23 as America First.

Work focused on America and what we need to do here at home to make life better for everybody else.

We haven't gotten a lot of that here lately.

We have to put America first.

Guys at home here are struggling.

I'm fortunate enoug to employ over 80 young adults, all 16 to 26.

They're looking to move out of mom and dad's house, but they can't because the can't afford rent or mortgage.

Electricity bill.

I just got one of my bills today for one of my one of my stores, and it was $2,600.

That's just that's one of the 8 or 9 we have over now.

I get it, it's tough.

Insurance is sky high.

Health insurance, car insurance, it's all sky high.

And we have to get a government that wants to truly work for the American people.

You are very much running on the economy and you're pointing out economic issues.

I mean, do you think it's fair that people tag it as a Republican issue or a Republican problem because you've been, your part has been in power in the House, the Senate and the presidency over the last two years.

I think that's our bigges problem going into the midterm is people can't see.

Obviously, it takes time for some of these things to come into effect.

Right?

The big beautiful bill with all the tax cuts and different help there.

It takes time.

I think we're going to see a phenomenal next two year of this, Trump administration.

But I don't know what it looks like in November to get to that point.

One of one of the bi things that happened immediately after Donald Trump took office, and I want to talk about immigration as well, is the cuts with the DOGE.

And, and a lot of people say that, it did cut a number of jobs, but it hasn't save as much money as was necessary.

I think what I've gotten from you is that you believ federal government is bloated.

It is too big.

How would you cut even more without being, as disruptive, let's say, as some say, DOGE has been.

So we have to state we're $40 trillion in debt.

We've got to do something right.

Now, I don't think we will never cut our way to $40 trillion worth of savings We will never get to that point.

But I think we with the infrastructure, what the investments have been brought to the country, it is one of those situation where it's not just make cuts, but we also have to grow our way out of this as well.

Now, I've been seeing her recently there's a huge steel, steel plant being or going to be built in eastern Iowa.

Unfortunately, it's not Illinois.

With our current tax structure and where we're sitting in Illinois, I can't say I blame them for going Iowa, but that is going to b a huge benefit to that region.

And we need to see more of that all over here in the country.

So it's talking about perhaps, as you're pointing out, a tariff.

So do you believe that the president's policy of increasing tariffs is doing a good job of bringing, work, bringing manufacturing back to the United States?

I think it is, but obviously that doesn't happen overnight, right?

We we're finally on a leve playing field where investments being brought back to the country.

But it takes time to build out these things.

And I think we'll start to see some of those effects here towards when we get closer to ‘28.

But that's what we need.

We need to become more self-sufficient here at home, not rely on some of these other countries to get some of our major products.

Besides the war in Iraq, war with Iran, besides that, the tariffs are being blamed for those higher gas prices for the economy.

A slowing down.

Do you think that Congress and tariff imposing tariffs is the role of Congress?

I mean, are you worried that Congress has not it' more unilateral by the president that Congress has not done enough in regards to tariffs?

So I I'm in a different scenario.

I guess with the tariffs, I, I we get a lot of our plastic logo caps from overseas.

There's no doubt about it.

There's very, very few domestic providers for that.

And they get them over from overseas as well.

So we've cut out the middleman there.

I was able to negotiate prices down 23% this year in midst of all the tariffs.

So granted, I'm not in the farming industry or AG or any of that.

I know those guys ar getting hit with these tariffs, but unfortunately we have to go through a little bit of this before things start to get better here at home.

Do you think Congress has, you know, not done its role as far as tariffs are concerned?

No, I think tariff we had to do something.

Right?

We've been taken advantage of for decades.

And it's about time we have somebody in place that puts America first on that end of it.

So these tariffs are putting us on a level playing field where investment is coming back here.

Now depending on what day of the week you ask, anywhere from $10 to $15 trillion worth of investment coming here to America.

That's what we want.

We want jobs here at home.

Good paying jobs here at home.

I know you'r you're interested in education.

Of course.

You were formerly you stepped down as vice president, in order to, run for Congress.

But you're still on the school board.

Tell me, do you agree with the cuts that have occurred?

With the federal Department of Education?

Would you like to see the Department of Education gone?

So those the Department of Education needs split up.

But out of the $280 billio a year that goes into that fund for the Department of Education, only about 20% of it actuall makes it to the school districts because it is so bloated with this administration.

We have to streamline some of these things so they're more effective, instead of just bogging down with more admin at the top.

So I do agree that a lot of those, a lot of those things within the Department of Educatio need to go to their appropriate, organizations to handle, and they can handle it because they already have the infrastructure in place and we can save a ton of money and give that directly back to our school districts, because we're struggling here in rural Illinois.

And is that is that what you see as the role?

So, so you think there is a role for a Department of Education, first of all, and you think it's more funding for local districts?

Or are you upset with mandates that, school districts have that is supposed to improve the level of education for students?

Well, look, since the Department of Education went into existence, have our have our test scores or reading scores, writing math has any of that gotten better?

Absolutely not.

We have in just one thing her with with being in a rural area, obviously our school district went out of business, so we can't generate more income by any means.

But just this year alone, we had to deal with about 22% health care, health insurance, premium, rates went up.

So at the end of the day we can't generate more income, and the only way we can do that is to tax our residents more.

At some point, the path we're on with that is not sustainable.

Health care is a huge I mean, if there was, a day one issu that I'm going to be focused on, it would 100% be health care and health insurance.

And I want to talk about that next.

But let me stick with education for one more moment, because you pointed out all of the, teenagers and young adults that you do employ.

Some of them might assume are going to college.

Some of them may have actually graduated college.

Where do you stand when it comes to loan forgiveness?

We're talking about billions of dollars in loans, that our, students, former students, I should say, graduates are facing.

And it's unfortunate.

So when I went to Western for that year, I had to take a theater class to be in law enforcement or to get my law enforcement degree.

We have to streamline education as well.

These guys shouldn't have shouldn't be paying for all these classes that don't pertain to what they want to do with their careers, and that'll make school more affordable.

Now, when I went to school, I went through the ROTC, and I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to do that, to go to school for free for the year.

I just had to pay my expenses to get there and back.

Because I live so close to McComb, I was able to drive back and forth.

So I there's a when you invest.

I think young adults that ag take education more seriously.

If they have something if they invest it in it.

Right?

If it cost them a little bit, they'll be more in tune to go, you know, see it through or do a little bit better in school.

Unfortunately, when you become an adult, all all lessons learned cost a little bit of money.

It's just the part of it.

Do you do you think that some loan forgivenes programs should exist, though?

I mean, do you think that, that would help the economy in the long term?

You know, I I don't know if loan forgiveness is the right way to do it.

Again, we're $40 trillion in debt, but I do think there's options where we do very low interest rate loans for student debt.

Because it's unfortunately these guys.

I've dealt with it several times with my employees now, and they've gone to four year schools, have racked up 50, 60, $70,000 in debt, and one, they can't find a job that's in that field that they chose.

And two, it's not paying what they needed to pay to to pay off th the student loan to buy a house.

It it's just one more added cost.

And if we can streamline education and make it affordable again when there's actually a ROI on education, then I think more people would be out for it.

Talking about, rural health care, you are on the board of the Eagle View Health System.

So of course you have knowledge in this area.

Let me ask you if if you think that, the big beautiful bill did enough to address issues of rural health care, because there are some hospitals that are saying it's taking money away from us.

There are, community health centers that say that the federal budget has been diminishing their serve, their ability to serve their clients.

Tell me about what you think about the big, beautiful Bill and its impact on rural health care.

So obviously, we we had, I'm, I'm no longer on the Eagle View community health board.

I did my five years and now hav passed it on to somebody else.

But, I remember going into that meeting the morning that the government funding was all shut down.

You couldn't request anything you couldn't put in for nothing.

And it was a scary moment because we have over 50 employees that we have to worry about paying, and we have patients that we have to worry about getting care to.

So it's tough.

But again, at the end of day, for $40 trillion in debt.

So we've we've got to start.

I, I' not opposed to making some cuts just to get things under control.

And we can add things where, where it's needed.

But we have to get I mean, we can all agree that there's waste, fraud and abuse and a lot of our government system, uh systems.

There's been a number of efforts, to eliminate the, Obamacare for, for lack of a better way of describing it.

And most people understand it as that way.

The Affordable Care Act.

Would you like to see it?

Totally, removed o or what is the Republican plan to replace it?

We've got to do something different there.

It's it's the Unaffordable Care Act at this point.

My family and I, my wife and I and two kids.

It was costing us almost $4,000 a month for our premiums.

It's not affordable.

My wife and I and family, we switched over to a Christian health share plan.

It's a cost share savings plan.

And it's it's like we're cas pay now up to a certain point.

And now when I had Obamacare and I would go see my primary care physicia because I had health insurance, the bill was $265.

Now that I'm cash pay, I go see that same exact physician.

It's 120.

When I have my blood work done, when I had health insurance, it was $803.

Now when I go get it done, I pay cash.

It's 165.

The price should be the same.

Regardless, we have to have price transparency and if we get that, that will help reduce the cost of health care in general, which then will lower our premiums.

There's no reaso why if you have health insurance and you go in for an X-ray and a broken arm, your bill might be $4,000.

I go in and pay cash and it's only 400.

We have to fix that.

One of the biggest issues that is facing our society right now is the developmen of artificial intelligence, AI and the creation of data centers.

Throughout America.

The president is very gung ho on this.

He sees no downside on it.

What's your view on AI and what do you think Congress should do?

So I, I don't know much about AI or, and the whole platform but I will say it, it scares me.

I was asked this the other night, you know, what is the the biggest national threat to to our country?

And I think AI as a as a probably number one at this point.

We've got these companie that are so far ahead with AI.

We have to reel things in and slow down with AI because I'm worried about what it's going to, what it's going to do to jobs moving forward, because five years from now, if we don't slow things down and really get a good grasp on it, it's going to look a lot different.

Now, critics would argue, even in your party, that if you slow down, China will get ahead of us.

I don't disagree with that.

And what scares me is not necessarily us having that technology, but it's China and some of these other countries that can infiltrat a lot of our systems over here.

That's that's really what scares me.

If the Democrats get control of the House or the Senate, they are promising, actually, the word was robust investigations into the president.

Does it concern you?

What the next session of Congress could be?

As far as oversight of the Trump administration, or do you or do you think that there should have been more oversight of the Trum administration up to this point?

if the Democrats control the House after November we will see the next, you think this year has been a lack of effor or lack of getting things done?

The next two years will be a waste of time.

There will not be anything being accomplished for the American people.

And that scares me as well.

We have a lot of things that need done, and I unfortunately, if the Democrat take control after November, it it, things are going to move at a snail's pace the next two years.

One last area I want to ask you about is election security.

There's going to be a number of races that could be razor thin.

Very close.

The president has also hinted that there could be more federal action, at polling stations on election day.

Are you worried about the election of, of 2026?

And, and and what is your opinion o early voting and mail-In voting?

So I'm a little different than most Republicans, but I do believe that you should vote in person and show an ID if you wanted to go in to the oh, attorney general's office or treasurer's office or anybody's office here in Illinois yet show ID just to get in to go to the Obama library you have to show an I.D.

to get in.

Now, I don't think it should just be one day for in-person voting.

I worked for the railroad for ten years, and it was hit or miss if I was going to be home on actual election day, when you had to walk in and vote in person.

But I think we should open it up to do 5 to 7 days of in-person voting with an ID.

I think that accommodates the majority of people.

Now, when it comes to mail in ballots for disabilities, for our, you know, serviceme and women overseas and all that, we absolutely have to offe the, the Mail-In ballot option like we have for decades.

But for every person that has, you know, able body American that can go, you know, walk down the street, drive a car, whichever.

When you go to vote, it should be in-person and you should have to show an I.D.

Our thanks to Illinois Republican 17th Congressional District candidate Dillan Vancil.

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