A Certified Public Finance Officer, former Champaign County auditor and former state senator representing East Central Illinois, Treasurer Michael Frerichs is committed to restoring integrity and transparency to state government. As the state’s chief investment officer, Treasurer Frerichs will leverage our investments to not only earn strong returns for taxpayers, but also create good-paying jobs that help families and communities rebuild the American Dream.
The son of two union members, a truck driver and a retired secretary, Frerichs was born and raised in the small Champaign County farming community of Gifford, Illinois. After graduating with honors from Rantoul Township High School in 1991, Frerichs attended Yale University with the help of his parents, student loans, scholarships and part-time jobs, graduating in 1995. From Yale, Frerichs enrolled at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan where he taught English while learning Mandarin Chinese. Afterward, Frerichs returned to Champaign County to serve his community, teaching at his old high school, serving as a volunteer firefighter, joining the board of a local nonprofit nursing home, and serving his community through Rotary International.
Frerichs won a seat on the Champaign County Board in 2000 when he was only 27 years old, its youngest member. In 2002, Frerichs was chosen by his Democratic and Republican colleagues on the county board to complete the term of the departing Champaign County auditor. As auditor, Frerichs was responsible for preparing budget reports, maintaining financial records, ensuring the county meet state and federal reporting requirements, preventing fraud and improving the financial health of the county. At the time, he was the only auditor in Illinois to earn credentials as a Certified Public Finance Officer, a credential he continues to maintain.
In 2006, Michael Frerichs became the youngest member of the Illinois State Senate and the first Democrat from East Central Illinois to serve in the State Senate since the 1930s. There, Frerichs championed government reform, job creation and education investments. As chairman of the Agriculture and Conservation Committee, which deals with a quarter of the state’s economy, Frerichs championed economic assistance to farmers and advocated for alternative fuels. A leading voice for job creation, Frerichs authored legislation to preserve enterprise zones linked to millions of jobs and billions of investments. As vice-chair of the Higher Education Committee, Frerichs championed full and fair funding for both higher education and K-12 schools while advancing efforts to make college more affordable.
A bipartisan leader in the State Senate, Frerichs brought together business and environmentalists to craft fracking regulations that will bring 50,000 jobs to Southern Illinois, and he worked closely with local Republicans to provide aid to his hometown of Gifford after it was torn apart by a tornado in 2013. An independent voice for taxpayers, State Senator Frerichs stood up to leaders in his own party to eliminate the troubled legislative scholarship program and oppose Governor Rod Blagojevich’s Gross Receipts Tax. He pushed to amend the articles of impeachment of then Governor Rod Blagojevich to prevent him from ever holding office in Illinois, and has consistently supported efforts to merge the Comptroller’s Office with the Treasurer’s Office.
Frerichs has been frequently recognized for his hard work by organizations from across the state, earning the Illinois Farm Bureau’s “Friend of Agriculture” Award, the “Legislator of the Year” Award from both the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts and the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors Association, and was named “Man of the Year” by Central Illinois Business Magazine in 2012.
Michael Frerichs was elected treasurer of Illinois in 2014 on a promise to strengthen ethics and transparency, and expand financial access, opportunity, and education across Illinois. Locating his main office in Springfield, the state capital, and not Chicago, Michael Frerichs and his young daughter, Ella, continue to call Champaign, Illinois home.