This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the Nov. 5 general election. The race for representative in the 50th District for the Illinois General Assembly is between incumbent Democrat Barbara Hernandez and challenger Teresa Alexander, a Republican. The general election is set for Nov. 5. Alexander, 62, of North Aurora, is a first-time candidate who said people in her district are worried about the high cost of living, business owners in Illinois leaving the state and immigration. “With the cost of living, people are talking about the high cost of gas which obviously impacts the high cost of groceries,” Alexander said. “Rents are very high in our area. People are living paycheck to paycheck and not having money to take family vacations.” Businesses are leaving Illinois, Alexander said. “I’m hearing that Illinois is just not friendly to businesses with the high tax burden and people are saying there are restrictions and requirements when they remodel – just a lot of additional costs that make it too hard to make money in the state and so they are wanting to leave,” she said. Teresa Alexander, a Republican, is running for the Illinois House of Representatives in the 50th District. (Teresa Alexander) If elected, Alexander said she would like to work on “the teaching of kids and school and values” as well as the tax burden and term limits of politicians. “I’m passionate about children and what I’m referring to with that is schools. I want them to concentrate on reading, writing and arithmetic as well as character-building and love of country,” she said. “I understand teachers have a tough job and have to discipline kids, but I believe we need to bring character back into the schools.” The tax burden, Alexander said, includes “Illinois being in a tough situation.” “We’ve been at the bottom of 50 out of 50 as far as the tax burden on citizens, but at the same time, we’ve had the pensions that are so underfunded,” she said. “We need to take a hard look at every single thing and find out what can we do differently.” There should be a limit of two terms in a political office, Alexander argues, adding “there is distrust for our politicians in Illinois, unfortunately.” “We’re known for our corruption with all the officials that have been sent to prison in Illinois,” she said. Hernandez, 32, of Aurora, is seeking her fourth term in the General Assembly and said residents in her district are concerned about the economy, housing and education. “The economy has to do with the rise in prices in food and items and making sure they have enough in their pockets and providing for their family,” she said. “That’s something I’ve noticed – they are concerned about items that used to be less than 99 cents like eggs. It’s very hard to pinpoint certain things because I know it’s not a complete state issue, but we’re trying to do as much as we can in the state. That’s why we eliminated the grocery tax for 2026, but there’s more than that.” Barbara Hernandez, a Democrat, is running for re-election as state representative in the 50th District. (Barbara Hernandez) Housing, Hernandez said, “is a problem as there is not enough of it and it’s too expensive and there’s not a lot of affordable housing.” The price of education is also a concern, Hernandez said, “especially for the younger community.” “Being able to have competitive colleges that will allow Illinois students to stay in Illinois or to come back to Illinois, and also the funding of schools, the funding of teachers, the funding of educational law, the teacher shortage, all of that is a concern,” she said. If re-elected, Hernandez said she’d like to work on a number of projects including social services and resources for job creation. Regarding social services, Hernandez said she “wants to be able to help families have more money in their pockets and be able to create certain programs available to them.” “I’m currently still working on a student-teacher stipend program in the state of Illinois that will allow students to have $10,000 in their pockets for going to school, going to college, becoming a teacher – that’s something I want to focus on,” she said. “I want to make sure we can give back to our families and have more resources for them economically.” Job creation, she said, includes there being “a lot of new careers out there that I feel like we have just briefly started to look into.” “We could do a lot more with it including clean energy, the technology industry, the cannabis industry and expanding that. There’s a lot of different careers that we can focus on,” she said. “I just feel like we’re not there yet in Illinois – that we haven’t been able to focus a lot on it and so expanding those services would create more jobs for minorities and for individuals, for women – that’s something I’ve been focusing on.” David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.