'Tis the season for political candidates to firm up plans to run for party primaries next year. Dillan Vancil is running for Congress as a Republican in the 17th district. That U.S. House seat is currently held by Democrat Eric Sorensen.
Vancil lives west of Monmouth. He's a former railroad engineer and the owner of Dame Fine Coffee, a chain of seven shops around west central Illinois and eastern Iowa. Dame is an acronym for the first names of family members.
Vancil said he got into the race because entrepreneurship is the toughest thing he's ever done, and he wants to make it easier to happen for his kids.
“We need to make it easier to start small businesses to grow,” said Vancil. “The American dream is slowly dwindled away because all the red tape and regulation that we have to jump through to get anything done.”
Vancil cited conversations with economic developers who lament a lack of electrical power supply and lack of housing as reasons they cannot not attract major manufacturers to Knox County.
“We could start with lowering interest rates. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was at 3% last month, and we've decided to make our interest rates political and not do what needs to be done for the economy,” said Vancil.
There are signs core inflation is starting to kick up again because of tariff impacts. The goal of controlling inflation and lowering interest rates has become a flash point between the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve.
Vancil expressed skepticism of official sources like the Fed and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The jobs report numbers and everything, it's one number one month, and then they retract it a couple weeks later. And who knows what the right answer is or what the real answer is anymore. I'd love to see interest rates come back down. Let's get this housing going. The housing market nationwide is just stagnant. Nobody's selling,” he said.
Vancil also backs President Trump's tariffs, though cautiously.
“I'm [leery] on the tariffs. It seems to be working. More time will tell on how that will all play out,” said Vancil. “President Trump has, so far, accumulated almost $12 trillion worth of investment in the United States. It's been sent over here or projected to happen. I'm curious if it actually will. But I think we're finally heading in the right direction where we're going to see economic growth,” said Vancil.
PolitiFact and Fact Check.org have contended that $12 trillion figure is exaggerated. The sites have reported the claim is also misleading because some investment that has happened is not attributable to administration policies.
Deficit reduction
Vancil also said revenue from tariffs will help the administration meet a goal of reducing the federal budget deficit, citing other factors as well.
“I think they're heading in the right direction with the big, beautiful bill. I don't think we've cut deep enough. We've got to be more strict with that,” said Vancil.
He also praised the bill's Medicaid cuts, that include new work requirements for 18–60-year-old citizens who do not have disabilities.
“I've had to work for everything that I've earned in my life. Why shouldn't they,” said Vancil. “I think things are heading in the right track, but we've got a little work to do yet.”
Social Security
The Social Security combined trust funds are projected to run out in 2035 unless something happens. Potential policy remedies include raising the retirement age, changing payroll deduction rates that support Social Security for various income levels, and reducing benefits to retirees. Vancil is noncommittal on how to address the challenge.
“As a younger guy myself, I honestly don't plan on Social Security being there when I'm 65, or what that age might be — 80 by the time I get there,” said Vancil. “I think we've robbed Peter to pay Paul so many times, is why it's not working, but I don't know how we get out of the hole that it's in right now. I don't know that answer. I don't think anybody does, or we'd be heading in a better direction.”
Foreign policy
Vancil said he has faith in the administration’s ability to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“I think Trump's going to come up with a deal with Putin here in the near future,” he said. “I wish we would have either not been involved with it at all, or dealt with it like we did this last issue with Iran.”
He clarified that does not mean he supports bombing Russia as the U.S. did to Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Either we're all in or we're all out. That’s what I'm trying to say. We either fix the issue or we just move on. We don't need to be involved in everything that happens in the world. We don't need to be everybody's Big Brother,” said Vancil. “I think we've spent entirely too much time and money invested into that war.”
He said he did not have a definitive answer to the Ukraine conflict.
WGLT also asked Vancil about the way forward in Gaza, where there is starvation, and whether he supports the historic U.S. position favoring a two-state solution, or the Trump administration’s apparent withdrawal from that stance.
“I don't really have a comment for that one at this time,” he said.
The campaign
Vancil has been active on the campaign trail most of the summer, hitting the county fair circuit. He said he is several months ahead of where previous GOP congressional candidate Joe McGraw was at this time in the last election cycle.
He said he’s traveled about 25,000 miles so far. And fundraising has been steady with more than $125,000 to date, though the 17th district that stretches from northern Illinois west, south and then east to McLean County includes several metro media markets where it is expensive to advertise.
“I think there's a nationwide movement to keep the House and Senate in 2026. I think we're going to get some national help. The 17th is the most winnable district in the state of Illinois. We're pounding the pavement every day,” said Vancil.
