Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday called on Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch to come clean to the public about his office’s handling of sexual harassment allegations made three years ago against now-former state Rep. Harry Benton, as the House Democratic Women’s Caucus criticized Welch’s handling of the case as “insufficient.”

The governor declined to say whether he still supported Welch as House speaker in light of a Tribune investigation that raised questions about how the Hillside Democrat’s office handled the 2023 allegations by a young female staffer. Those claims surfaced after at least one other person came forward this year with more recent harassment allegations against Benton, a Democrat from Plainfield, sparking discipline from Welch and an investigation by the legislative inspector general.

But Pritzker did call on Welch to be open about what his office knew about Benton’s behavior and when. So far, Welch’s office has defended its handling of the 2023 case, telling the Tribune it acted “promptly” and said “appropriate action was taken” — though prepared statements from his office did not specify what, if any, disciplinary action occurred against Benton three years ago.

“People should be held to a very high standard. If you are going to serve in public office, elected office especially, but appointed office also, you have to live up to the standard that the public should expect from you, (a) very high standard, and people have fallen down on that job,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference at a downtown Chicago hotel. “Now, the speaker has a responsibility to be utterly and completely transparent about the situation to make sure that he is letting the public know, as well as, in particular, his members know exactly what happened, and to the extent that he made mistakes, to own up to those mistakes.”

Pritzker’s calls for more transparency come on the eve of a meeting of the state’s Legislative Ethics Commission, which may decide Thursday whether to publicly release the investigative report by Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey into Benton’s conduct. Pritzker and Welch have each called for the commission — composed of four Democratic and four Republican lawmakers — to make the report public, but if they do vote to release it, the report may not become public for several days because Benton has five days to comment on the findings.

One commission member, Republican state Sen. Jil Tracy of Quincy, has said the Tribune’s investigation is “worse” than the findings in the report.

As he has tried to contain fallout from the controversy, Welch this week held multiple private meetings with House Democratic lawmakers, including members of the Women’s Caucus, to explain how his office handled the 2023 allegations. Several Democratic House members who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions told the Tribune that Welch told them his office waited three months after the female Benton staffer notified his office of a lengthy list of harassment allegations before taking any action because the young woman said she wanted the speaker’s office to wait until she had left her job. On Tuesday, the woman told the Tribune she didn’t recall telling the speaker’s office that those were her wishes.

Welch also told lawmakers in the meetings that the office had acted to respect the former staffer’s wishes not to “pursue” action against Benton. But she has told the Tribune that was in reference to her rejecting Welch’s office’s push for her to file a report with the legislative inspector general’s office. She has said she preferred that Welch’s office handle the matter internally and further stated that she didn’t want other women to face harassment from Benton in the future.

On Wednesday, Pritzker referenced Welch’s meetings as the governor discussed potential next steps.

“I’m just saying that these meetings are not over, the ones that he’s having with his members, and I believe that these members of the House, they don’t want their House to be besmirched by the things that the members have done, that they’ve been caught doing, or by a failure of leadership,” Pritzker said. “And so they will have that discussion with their leader and they’ll make a decision about whether he should be their leader going forward.”

A Welch spokesperson didn’t return a request for comment on Pritzker’s statements Wednesday.

The Tribune investigation found that the young woman who worked for Benton in his district office reported in April 2023 to Welch’s office a series of incidents of harassing behavior, many of a sexual nature, that she experienced from Benton, but the lawmaker wasn’t interviewed by the speaker’s top staff until three months later. That was after the woman had already quit her job, saying she feared for her mental health. The former staffer told the Tribune that Benton was not disciplined at the time.

Earlier this month, Benton resigned his legislative seat and withdrew his bid for reelection after McCuskey issued to Welch a private report in response to a complaint Welch’s office filed earlier this year regarding Benton’s behavior. The Tribune has learned that more recent allegations about Benton’s behavior revolved around lewd comments he made to a female lobbyist at a Chicago bar. While the investigation was in progress, Welch sidelined Benton from his committee assignments and other key Democratic caucus duties.

The Tribune investigation also revealed Welch’s interactions with the former Benton staffer on social media — which included him responding with heart-eye emojis to images of her — as well as a request over the encrypted Signal messaging app to meet in the bar area of a suburban restaurant. The young woman once interned in Welch’s office and, according to the speaker’s spokesperson, he and the woman had a “cordial friendship,” though the communications did not occur while she was still interning for the office. The former staffer has told the Tribune the emoji responses from Welch made her feel “uncomfortable.”

On Wednesday, the governor also said he has urged the speaker “to make sure that all of the information is out there, and that he lets people know, not only the things that were on paper, that were written or done back then, but also what he was thinking in that process.”

“And so, that is what I think needs to happen now,” Pritzker said. “But this is a matter for the House to deal with itself. The members of the House have to live up to certain standards. And the other members need to hold those members to that very high standard.”

In a prepared statement, the House Democratic Women’s Caucus said when there are some reports of harassment or abuse, “leadership must act swiftly to investigate the matter and support the person who came forward.” The caucus also criticized how the 2023 allegations from the former Benton staffer were handled.

“Simply referring a complainant to the Legislative Inspector General is insufficient — and if the person who reported the harassment chooses not to pursue that route, leadership must take further action to protect others in the workplace,” the statement read. “We support the calls to release the Benton LIG report, redacted to protect those who came forward. But releasing one report is not enough. We must expand and strengthen how harassment is reported and investigated and how victims are supported, and we must begin that work immediately.”

Separately, state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat from Arlington Heights who heads the Women’s Caucus, issued her own statement denouncing Welch’s conduct toward the young woman who accused Benton of harassment.

“I am troubled by Speaker Welch’s conduct toward the staff member described in the Tribune’s reporting,” Canty said. “Legislators — especially those in leadership — must hold themselves to the highest standard of professionalism. The Speaker’s reported conduct fell short of that standard. I appreciate Speaker Welch’s willingness to engage in open dialogue with legislators about his conduct, and I look forward to that dialogue being matched with action.”

Lawmakers said Welch acknowledged in at least one of his internal meetings this week that he was wrong to send the emojis but said he often holds meetings at the restaurant.

House Republicans have seized on the speaker’s use of emojis on social media, releasing a digital ad featuring Instagram photos of women in swimming suits on which Welch clicked a “like” button.

“There’s a lot more where that came from,” a female announcer says in the ad.

_____

©2026 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.