
Eric Sorensen
Democrat · IL-17 · U.S. House
Bio
Eric Sorensen is an American politician and meteorologist serving as the U.S. representative for Illinois's 17th congressional district since 2023. His district covers a large swath of western and central Illinois, centered around Moline, Rock Island, and the Illinois side of the Quad Cities. It also includes parts of Peoria and Rockford. A member of the Democratic Party, Sorensen is the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois.
Full bio on Wikipedia →Record of service
- In office
- 3.6 years
- First took office
- 2023 (2 terms)
- Seniority
- 316 of 437 by time served
- Age
- 50
- Rockford, IL · 779-513-4960
- Rock Island, IL · 309-786-3406
- Peoria, IL · 309-621-7070
Service history, offices and identifiers from unitedstates/congress-legislators (public domain). Years served sum each term rather than subtracting the first start date, so a break in service is not counted as time in office.
Reported net worth
- Assets
- $51k – $115k
- Liabilities
- $100k – $250k
- Net worth
- −$199k – $15k
- Since 2021
- −$112k
Largest holdings in the 2025 filing · 2 assets reported
Largest first, capped at 40 line items. Each is the asset's reported value bracket, not the income it produced.
From annual financial disclosures, which report every asset and debt as a bracket — so these are ranges, and the figure shown is their midpoint. A primary residence is not a reportable asset while its mortgage is a reportable debt, which pushes some members negative. How this is calculated →
Overall lean (DW-NOMINATE)
Issue profile
Each issue runs left ↔ right, scored from how the member voted on bills tagged to that issue (−1…+1). Issues with too few votes are blank. Overall lean uses DW-NOMINATE.
How they score against the parties
Eric Sorensen's voting record compared with each party's national platform, issue by issue — the same similarity score used across the site.
On the political map
Eric Sorensen (the large ringed dot) among every current member of Congress and the party platforms.
Each small dot is a current member (Dem · Rep); the larger dots are party platforms — click one for its closest members. Economic axis: taxes, healthcare, labor, energy. Social axis: abortion, guns, immigration, civil rights, crime.
Do you vote like Sorensen?
Answer a few questions on the issues and see which members of Congress — and which party — actually line up with you.
Caucuses & committees
Where Sorensensits in Congress's own organization — each group's lean is computed from its members' voting records. Explore them all on the caucuses and committees pages.
Caucuses
- New Democrat Coalitionstrongly left · 109 members
Most and least aligned members
Treating Sorensen's 14 issue scores as a vector, cosine similarity measures whether two voting records point the same way (+100%) or in opposite directions (−100%) — the colleagues whose records align most and least with theirs.
Recent notable votes
Latest news
Rep. Sorensen says ACA subsidy delay will spike health insurance costsRep. Eric Sorensen warns ACA subsidy delays could drive health insurance premiums up by more than $1,000 a month for some families in Illinois’ 17th District.
WQAD.com · December 18, 2025
Congressman Eric Sorensen on Defending Climate Science, Depoliticizing Weather and Bringing Scientific Rigor to Capitol HillRepresentative Eric Sorensen of Illinois shares how his meteorology roots drive his fight to protect climate science and push back against political interference.
Scientific American · August 8, 2025
‘You don’t care’: Gay congressman blasts defense secretary over LGBTQ troopsU.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, a Democrat and the first openly gay member of Congress from Illinois, delivered strong criticism of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, accusing the embattled Pentagon chief of not caring about LGBTQ service members, and fostering…
Raw Story · June 13, 2025
U.S. Rep. Sorensen sticks up for Harvey Milk in hearing with Navy secretaryU.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, a gay Democrat who’s the first out LGBTQ+ congressman from Illinois, delivered an impassioned defense of Harvey Milk at a House Armed Services Committee hearing this week.
Advocate.com · June 12, 2025
Recent coverage via NewsAPI, refreshed daily.