President Harmon was the keynote speaker for the 13th Edgar Fellows class on August 6.

His remarks as prepared are below:

Good afternoon, all.

Thank you for the invitation.

I’m Don Harmon, president of the Illinois Senate.

I’ve had this title for just over 5 years, which somehow makes me the longest serving legislative leader.

Before this, perhaps you had heard of my 16-year endeavor to finally enact state gun dealer registration.

Or maybe the decade I put into getting the Fair Tax on the ballot, which didn’t exactly go the way I’d hoped back in 2020.

Those things are all well and good, but the line in my bio that tends to get the most attention is that I also happen to play guitar in a bipartisan lawmaker band called the Boat Drink Caucus.

 

We were allegedly a BIG deal back in 2015 because somehow we’d been booked to open for Buddy Guy and Toby Keith in front of more than 2,000 Republicans at governor-elect Bruce Rauner’s inaugural ball.

My Republican bandmates felt right at home.

I’m a Democrat from Oak Park.

I was a stranger in a strange land.

Two highlights from that show.

 

One – using Toby Keith’s sound system.

We’d never sounded better.

Two – the irony of performing the Rolling Stones’ “You can’t always get what you want” at Bruce Rauner’s inaugural ball.

 

So at this point you might be wondering:

Why is the Senate President talking about his band?

I’ll tell you why.

All I needed to know to be a legislative leader …

 

I learned playing in a rock and roll band.

Think about it.

Everyone needs to know their parts, play the same song and at the same tempo, or it all falls apart.

And at least 90 percent of the work is done behind the scenes.

I’m a former House Dem legal staffer, so I really do know, respect and appreciate the work that goes into the legislative process.

As I’ve thought about this, I can point to 3 areas where playing in bands helped in the role I have now.

The first would be Confidence.

It’s not easy to put oneself on public display.

I am still haunted by a high school New Year’s Eve party my band played nearly 40 years ago. 

Nobody wanted to hear us.

But just because the crowd doesn’t like one song doesn’t mean you stop playing it.

You have to believe that they’ll love the next one.

And that’s why you keep playing.

 

A few years later, when I was in law school, I confidently walked into my local lawmaker’s office and told him he should put me in charge of re-chartering the local Young Democrats.

My lawmaker was Phil Rock, who, at the time, was President of the Illinois Senate.

He looked at me over his glasses,

“Alright kid, I’ll give you a shot.”

And years later, when Senate President Emil Jones announced his retirement in 2008, I was among the approximately 30 Democrats vying to be next Senate President.

Obviously I didn’t win.

But it showed I was serious about my role in the Senate and our caucus.

 

It translated into a leadership post and increased opportunities to work with my colleagues to build consensus on difficult issues.

That helped build their confidence in my abilities.

And here I am.

Second on my list would be Perspective.

It’s an important check on confidence.

At no point have I ever thought that I, or any of our bands, were destined for the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

 

That left me with no choice but to attend law school and devote myself to public service.

Being in the General Assembly also quickly gives one perspective.

I joined the Illinois Senate in 2003.

One of my first committee assignments was the Senate Judiciary Committee.

At the first meeting of each new session, Chairman John Cullerton would go around the room.

Senators introduce themselves and say where they went to law school.

There were a couple DePauls, couple Chicago-Kents, a Loyola, probably a U of I,  and so on.

 

My law degree from the University of Chicago received a slight “oohing” from the audience.

It is a great school.

I’m fortunate to have been admitted.

Anyway, John Cullerton, never one to miss an opportunity to add perspective to a situation, quickly noted that there was one Senator absent.

His name was Barack Obama.

And, Cullerton noted that Senator Obama had a law degree from a little school called … Harvard.

Welcome to the General Assembly.

 

What I want you to take away is that I ran for the Senate and for Senate President, not to be a star, but rather because I thought I could help people get things done and solve problems.

And along the way, I’ve learned that when you work with others and make your work about others, you get the best results.

It’s important to keep that perspective.

And finally there’s Teamwork, where confidence and perspective combine … or collide.

In 2014, our band was booked to be the opening act for the Phases of the Moon Festival over by Danville.

That was a 4-day, four-stage festival featuring more than 40 bands. We were the very first to play.

The night before, there’s a torrential storm that nearly washes out the festival.

We finally get on stage, and we’re about three songs into our set when the promoter comes running over yelling at us --  

STOP!!!.

Turns out the entire festival had been pushed back a couple hours.

The gates hadn’t opened yet.

And THAT’S why we were playing to an empty field, which we hadn’t really noticed because we’re used to very… small … crowds.

As we waited, our bass player tells us he’s quite ill and can’t play.

Seeing no other nominations, I offered to play bass.

How hard could it be?

It’s a guitar with fewer strings.

 

We do our set, and according to one bandmate, I was:

(quote) surprisingly not that bad. (end quote)

Yay, teamwork!

So, let’s fast forward to 2020.

After Cullerton announces his retirement from office, Kimberly Lightford and I compete to be the next Senate President.

I win the support of the caucus and our session is off and running.

Within days, COVID hits and everything shuts down.

 

I brought the Senate back to approve an emergency budget and get out of town.

By and large, we felt good about what we’d been able to do in the midst of a pandemic, and how we’d done it.

Then we learned of George Floyd’s murder.

And it was clear that a lot of things needed to change.

As much as I wanted to be part of all of this, it was clear that I was not the right person to lead this effort.

That leader was Kimberly Lightford.

 

I offered my support, and told her the Senate President’s staff and resources were at her disposal.

Leader Lightford and the Legislative Black Caucus would go on to host a series of important community hearings to shape what became known as the Black Caucus Pillars, which are a legislative blueprint for confronting systemic racism.

Anyone who’s spent any time around the General Assembly recognizes that the legislative process is set up for incremental change.

The lasting success of the Black Caucus Pillars is that they fundamentally changed the conversation about social justice.

The lesson is that leaders don’t need to be in the spotlight.

You never know what role you might play to help the team reach its goals.

 

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed these stories and take something useful away from them.

In my 5 years as Senate President, I’ve come to recognize that the key to success is the ability to disappoint people at a rate they can digest.

That mostly a joke.

Mostly.

In closing, I’ll bring it full circle and leave you with the leadership advice I offered Bruce Rauner when introducing a certain Rolling Stones song back at his inauguration.

You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You get what you need

Thank you.