Neil Anderson has been a Moline firefighter for almost a decade. Next week, he starts a new job as Illinois State Senator for the 36th District.
"I'm just looking forward to kind of getting the ball rolling," said Anderson.
In November, Anderson beat Senator Mike Jacobs, a Democrat who has served as state senator since 2005. Before that his dad Denny served as a state senator from 1987 to 2005. Together the two served as state senator for the district for the past 27 years.
"I think my message resonated with people, ya know? The message of term limits and responsible government," said Anderson.
"It goes to show um, where we're at as far as politics. Next election, I won't be the most expensive race anymore. It just keeps going up and up and it's sad that we have to spend that much money but at the same time, I was humbled by the support I got going against an incumbent," said Anderson.
Taking over the seat, he plans to talk with Senator Jacobs about any projects he was working on and focus on jobs and the state's budget.
"It's no secret that our budget is an absolute mess. We need to prioritize our spending and we need to sit down with legislators and our new governor and bipartisanly figure out a good way to fix that," said Anderson.
Anderson will be sworn in Wednesday, January 14, 2014.