Appointed to a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives by county party leaders after her predecessor left to head the state Department of Natural Resources, Bourne was the youngest of the 10 candidates to apply. "I've lived in this rural district in downstate Illinois for my entire life, and my family's been farming corn and soybeans here for generations," the 22-year-old Republican said.
Read the Huffington Post's profile of the 12 youngest legislators in the nation.