Ajay Gupta

Republican | Illinois

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Candidate Profile

Ajay Gupta — General Assembly, District 41 (Illinois Republican Primary | March 17, 2026)
General Assembly, District 41 Illinois General | November 3, 2026
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Moderate

BIOGRAPHY

EDUCATION

Yale University, New Haven, CT, MBA, 1988-1990

Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, JD, 1990-1993

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, MA (Economics), 1994-1997

New York University, New York, NY, LLM (Tax), 1999-2010

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, MA (Divinity), 2020-2026

WORK & MILITARY

Private Practice of Law, Of Counsel, 2017-2026

United States Tax Court, Attorney-Adviser, 2016-2017

Tax Analysts, Contributing Editor, 2013-2016

United States Attorney's Office NDGA, Special Assistant United States Attorney, 2012-2013

United States Tax Court, Attorney-Adviser, 2009-2012

AFFILIATIONS

Chicago-Kent College of Law, Adjunct Professor of Law, 2015-2026

DePaul University College of Law, Adjunct Professor of Law, 2015-2026

University of Houston Law Center, Adjunct Professor of Law, 2020-2026

POLITICAL OFFICES HELD

Candidate did not provide

POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT

State Representative, Illinois House District 41

SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS

CONSERVATIVE
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (2)

Ajay Gupta (2025)

Local, County, and District Republican Organizations (2025)

RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (2)

Local, County, District Republican Organizations (2026)

Ajay Gupta (2025)


OTHER INFORMATION

QUESTIONNAIRE

RIGHT TO LIFE

Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).

Strongly Agree

Under what circumstances should an elective abortion be allowed?

Issues such as elective abortions, the death penalty, and physician-assisted suicide, which involve fundamental questions about the value of human life, the limits of individual autonomy, and the role of the state in matters of life and death, should be decided by popular referendum in a given state.

Human life deserves legal protection from conception until natural death.

Strongly Agree

The lives of human embryos created through artificial methods ought to be protected from purposeful destruction.

Strongly Agree

The Comstock Act, which bans interstate transportation of abortion-inducing drugs, should be enforced.

Choose not to answer

This is a misleading prompt. It inaccurately presents the Comstock Act as a clear, currently operative ban on abortion drugs whose enforcement is a simple matter of applying existing law. In reality, its applicability to modern medication abortion remains legally disputed and long unenforced.


ECONOMY

What is your position on the minimum wage?

A reasonable minimum wage can serve goals of personal responsibility, family stability, limited government dependency, and social order. But an aggressive minimum wage is generally an economically inefficient and counterproductive intervention.

Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.

Strongly Agree

List your top 3-5 priorities to eliminate government waste.

At the state level: Reduce improper payments and fraud in major entitlement programs, such as Medicaid. Reform public employee pension and benefit systems. Consolidate overlapping programs and reduce administrative layers.


RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?

No such phrase appears in the U.S. Constitution. It comes from a private letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists. The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause prohibit the federal government from establishing an official national religion or coercing citizens into supporting or practicing any particular faith. These Clauses, however, do not require the government to be hostile to religion or purge religious expression from public life.

Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.

Strongly Disagree


HEALTHCARE

What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D) Taxpayer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be defunded.

C

The government should keep a database of people with various ongoing medical illnesses to assess the economic burden of treatment.

Strongly Disagree


NATIONAL SECURITY

The Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, and global economic threats to the United States.

Strongly Agree

Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?

Its importance should be measured strictly in terms of how it strengthens the United States’ security, counters common enemies in the Middle East more effectively than the United States could alone, and advances democratic interests in that region, in that order.


IMMIGRATION

I support the existence of sanctuary cities to protect undocumented persons.

Strongly Disagree


EDUCATION

I support eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving control back to states and communities.

Strongly Agree

Foreign governments should be prohibited from funding American education.

Strongly Agree


VALUES

Government should recognize and support the fundamental right and essential duty of parents to direct their child's health and educational well-being.

Strongly Agree

Attempts to physically or socially transition a child to the opposite sex constitute child abuse.

Choose not to answer

This is a needlessly contentious phrasing of the issue. Regardless, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgery should not be available to minors. The United Kingdom reached this conclusion through a highly cautious, evidence-based approach following the independent Cass Review (2024). There is no reason to believe this conclusion should not apply globally.

Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.

Choose not to answer

Another ill-framed prompt. The first sentence presents a theological claim. Even if fully accepted, it does not logically determine the scope of a government’s authority over civil law. Governments routinely define and regulate legal institutions, including marriage, for civil purposes: tax treatment, inheritance, parental rights, immigration, etc. The question is who should decide. Courts should not. Either the electorate or their elected representatives should do so.

I support the expansion of gambling in my state.

Strongly Disagree

Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.

Deist


ELECTIONS AND VOTING

People should be able to vote without photo identification.

Strongly Disagree


EQUALITY

Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.

Strongly Disagree

Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women's sports or occupy biological women's spaces whether it be bathrooms, locker rooms, sorority houses, women's shelters, or prison.

Strongly Agree


ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Man-made climate change is a global threat and requires urgent political action.

Neutral

We need more data before we can accept or reject this claim.

What do you believe is the most reliable energy source that will supply the growing demand for electricity?

Nuclear


ABOUT YOU

When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?

Conservative

Have you ever been penalized for sexual misconduct in either civil or criminal court? If so, please explain.

No

Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, please explain.

No


CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY

What should be the goal of the criminal justice system?

Incapacitation by incarceration. Deterrence by incarceration and monetary fines.

Government has a responsibility to protect children from sexual exploitation during online activities.

Strongly Agree

Sharia law should not be accepted or incorporated in any form within the legal framework of the United States.

Strongly Agree


2ND AMENDMENT

What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?

Restrictions consistent with the Second Amendment: Prohibitions on certain categories of people. Background checks for commercial sales (NICS system). Shall-issue licensing/permitting systems. Targeted extreme-risk (red-flag) laws with strong due-process protections. Temporary disarmament after a judicial finding of credible threat. Reasonable age restrictions.

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