Peoria Standard

Dylan Steffen, a 25-year-old farmer and founder of the Central Illinois Young Republicans (CIYR), has announced his candidacy for the Woodford County Board, aiming to bring a rural perspective and a focus on housing, agriculture, and transparency to local government.

“My community's just given me so much, and I believe in serving our community as well, and so this is one way that I can give back,” Steffen told the Peoria Standard.

The Woodford County Board, based in Eureka, serves as the county’s legislative body. It consists of 15 members elected from three districts to four-year terms. Board members adopt ordinances, approve budgets, levy taxes and set policies guiding county operations for more than 38,000 residents.

“This is an opportunity to gain a better understanding of local government and build my résumé a little bit,” Steffen said. 

Steffen said his decision to run stems from a desire to gain firsthand experience in public service.

“I believe that you have to do the work and try to get the best understanding of how everything operates as you move along,” he said.

Raised on his family’s 300-acre farm near Low Point outside Metamora, Steffen works in the family operation, which primarily grows corn and soybeans. He said his campaign will focus on housing development, agriculture and community transparency, noting that housing affordability has become a growing concern for younger families in Woodford County.

“Right now, Gen Z, Millennials, and eventually Gen Alpha are going to want to own homes,” he said. “When my friends around me are looking for homes, making $70,000 or $80,000 a year, the homes they can afford often need $60,000, $70,000, $80,000, or even $100,000 of work. That really frustrates them because they want to be able to get into something that’s at least halfway decent.”

Steffen explained that addressing these challenges requires not just awareness, but proactive collaboration with local officials and developers to make housing more accessible.

“I want to focus on housing development and see if we can work with the zoning administration and the county to offer some sort of incentives for developers, because a lot of developers only seem to focus on higher-end housing at this point, since that’s where the profit margins are,” he said. 

He also pointed to issues affecting farmers and rural infrastructure.

“Ag-related issues will be a big thing that I'll be focusing on too as a farmer,” he said. “There aren't too many farmers, if any, on the board at this point that I know of, so I want to bring in some perspective from the rural community.”

He reflected on his lifelong connection to farming and the importance of advocacy.

“I’ve been farming since I was a little boy, and I love the community,” Steffen said. “I feel like more farmers need to be involved in their communities, especially in advocating for ag, because if we're not, then somebody else that doesn't know anything about it will.”

Steffen noted that agricultural concerns now intersect with broader energy and infrastructure issues.

“There's a big discussion right now about solar and wind farms,” he said. “We're having some issues with the wind farms coming in, and they're pretty much just destroying the roads around the towns or not even telling the towns when they're going to be showing up.”

He added that improved communication from energy companies could prevent disruptions and protect local resources.

“There's something that maybe we could work on to get these companies that are going to come in and do these projects to be much more transparent with our towns and our community, because we've had issues,” Steffen said. “I was talking to one of my friends in her little town of Benson. EMS doesn't know which roads are closed. So if they have to go to a call and they're driving around the back roads to get to one of these farmhouses, they can't get there because the roads are all closed while the semis bring in the big posts that the windmills sit on.”

Steffen’s CIYR chapter, based in Tazewell and Woodford counties, was officially chartered this fall as the 14th chapter of the Federation of Illinois Young Republicans.

Since its launch, the group’s social media presence has grown quickly, spotlighting partnerships with organizations such as Turning Point USA, McLean County Young Republicans and ISU College Republicans.

In previous comments to the Peoria Standard, Illinois Federation of Young Republicans Chairman Evan Kasal praised Steffen’s leadership, noting the Central Illinois chapter “gap in our leadership” in the state’s youth conservative network.

Kasal said he hopes to hold the Federation’s 2026 statewide convention in Peoria, citing the chapter’s central location as ideal for uniting young conservatives across Illinois.

He added that transparency and accessibility will be central to his campaign. 

“With me, you're going to get somebody who’s been involved with the community since they were a kid,” Steffen said. “If they have any issues, I want them to reach out directly to me and make me aware of something I may not know about or something I could help with. I will be as transparent and communicative as possible.”