Born in Collinsville, Illinois, John Shimkus graduated in 1980 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, serving afterward as an Army Ranger and paratrooper. After leaving the Army, Shimkus returned to Collinsville in 1986 to teach high school.

After running unsuccessfully for Madison County Treasurer in 1988, Shimkus was elected to the Collinsville Township Trustee in 1989. He pursued the Country Treasurer post again in 1990 and won, defeating a 12-year incumbent to become the first Republican countywide officeholder in 10 years.

In 1992, Shimkus made a first attempt at running for U.S. Congress, challenging incumbent Richard Durbin, a Democrat. After outspending the Shimkus campaign by some $643,000, Durbin was re-elected by a slim 57 to 43 percent victory. Shimkus was re-elected to the Madison County Treasurer post in 1994.

In 1995, Congressman Durbin decided to pursue the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Simon, prompting Shimkus to take another shot at running for Congress. In a primary of eight candidates, Shimkus won the Republican nomination with 51 percent of the vote.

In the 1996 House race, Shimkus faced state Representative Jay Hoffman. While both shared similar platforms, including anti-abortion and anti-gun control stances, Shimkus took the Americans for Tax Reform's pledge not to raise taxes - a move Hoffman refused to make according to the Almanac of American Politics. Despite Hoffman's support from the AFL-CIO and more robust campaign war chest, Shimkus won the seat, albeit by a slim 1,238-vote margin.

After his close victory in 1996, Shimkus went on to be re-elected to the 20th district seat in 1998 with 61 percent of the vote and again in 2000 with 63 percent.

His first year in office, Shimkus landed a seat on the influential Commerce Committee and was able to support a small piece of locally-important alternative fuel legislation. The legislation, called EPACT, qualified the soybean-diesel fuel B-20 for the alternative fuels program, allowing vehicles using B-20 to qualify for federal environmental quotas and raising the demand for soy diesels from his farming-heavy district.

Shimkus has taken up the alternative fuel and energy cause as a banner of his campaign. He has called the EPACT legislation his most important personal achievement over his five years in Congress.

"Passing that biodiesel legislation did two things: it helped to decrease our reliance on foreign oils, and it added up a new market for our farmers," Shimkus told the Illinois Leader in August.

Shimkus' first year in the House was featured in a PBS documentary called, "Mr. Shimkus Goes to Washington." The documentary dealt with Shimkus' freshman year in Washington and the effects on his family.

Although the documentary provided much positive exposure, Shimkus did meet some controversy during his years in Congress, including a bitter partisan fight over the selection of a new House chaplain and a battle over federal funding for an Abraham Lincoln presidential library in Springfield.

After the 2000 Census revealed Illinois population growth had stunted, the state lost a seat in the House. A bipartisan committee combined Shimkus' 20th district with other zones. But the newly drawn 19th district favored Shimkus' old constituency, with 60 percent of his counties still intact in the new constituency. But in order to retain a seat in the House, Shimkus must defeat another incumbent, current 19th district Rep. David Phelps, a Democrat.

Shimkus has been married for 15 years and has three children.

--By Maureen Hoch, Online NewsHour