“TMA and our members value candidates and local leaders who want to learn more about how they can advocate for manufacturers and lower the cost-of-living.”
SCHAUMBURG, IL – Don Tracy, candidate for the United States Senate, visited the Technology & Manufacturing Association’s (TMA) headquarters in Schaumburg, where he met with TMA leadership to discuss headwinds Illinois manufacturers are facing and received a tour of TMA’s training facilities used to educate the next generation of makers and doers.
TMA leadership conveyed how its members are continuously burdened with increasing energy costs, unnecessary regulations and red tape, and crippling taxes and fees which make it nearly impossible for small and midsize manufacturers to expand production and hire additional Illinois workers.
TMA also expressed frustration over Governor Pritzker’s plan to hike taxes on manufacturers by taking away cost-saving benefits provided in the Working Families Tax Cut, or One Big Beautiful Bill Act. TMA Executive Vice President Dennis LaComb echoed their members’ opposition to Pritzker’s decoupling effort by saying, “Washington threw us a lifeline with improvements to the tax code that will lower costs and help our members compete in the global marketplace. Now, before we could even benefit, the governor wants to strip those benefits away. It’s not the responsibility of small, family-run manufacturers to pay more to fund the state’s perpetual overspending.”
Don Tracy is the first candidate for the 2026 elections to tour TMA and meet with manufacturing leadership. TMA welcomes candidates from both parties to visit TMA’s facilities in Schaumburg and to meet with its nearly 900 members to get a real understanding of the concerns manufacturers face on a daily basis and discuss solutions that would help small businesses across Illinois.
“Our association and our members value candidates and local leaders who reach out to us wanting to learn more about how they can advocate for manufacturers in office and collaborate on ideas that would lower the cost-of-living for working families,” said LaComb.
