* Porter and I went to college together a long time ago. I’ll have more next week, but you won’t find a man like him again. From Alex Gough…
After a four year battle with cancer, Rock Island County Board Member Porter McNeil passed this afternoon. He kept swimming, attending political events, serving as a Rock Island County Board member, and being a great father to James, Jack, and Ellie and husband to Mary until the very end.
“Porter’s passing leaves an irreplaceable hole in the community he loved so fiercely,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “His infectious enthusiasm and fervent dedication to his family, his friends, and to doing the right thing for the neighbors he represented should serve as a guiding light for all public officials to follow. My thoughts are with his loved ones, his children — James, Jack, Ellie, and his beloved Mary. May his memory be a blessing to us all.”
“Porter was a dear friend whom I counted on in many campaigns,” said US Senator Dick Durbin. “He knew the Quad Cities and people respected his honesty and his values. He loved Mary and his family and couldn’t wait to call and tell me Jack’s latest political adventure. I’m going to miss him.”
“Porter McNeil had a great talent for communications and tremendous passion for politics but always as a vehicle to help improve the lives of his community and hard-working people,” said David Axelrod. “He also was an unfailingly gracious man, a loving husband, proud father and a wonderful friend. I will miss him.”
“In his time as a Member of the Rock Island County Board, Porter McNeil worked tirelessly on efforts related to economic development, legislative matters, and more recently passenger rail.” said County Board Chairman Richard “Quijas” Brunk. “He had a true passion for community, and that passion and its impact will be felt for years to come. We have lost a great member of our team, our community has lost a staunch advocate, and I have lost a friend.”
“Porter was a friend to me who helped build me up as a candidate,” said State Senator Mike Halpin. “So many of my words over the years actually belonged to him, as was true for candidates of nearly every level of public office. He was our fierce defender of Democrats in the press, but most importantly he was a good man - to his constituents, to his friends, and to the family he loved.”
Porter was a gifted communicator with a bachelor’s degree from Macalester College, St. Paul Minnesota and a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois. He served nearly a decade working on behalf of all Illinoisans in and around the Illinois Statehouse in Springfield.
As a member of the Rock Island County Board since 2021, he was active in helping to drive community economic development efforts, as well as by volunteering with numerous local community organizations.
As a campaign consultant he worked on dozens of campaigns including serving as a communications consultant to the Democratic Party of Illinois in 2024 and Illinois Communications Director for the Kerry-Edwards Presidential Campaign in 2004. He was a familiar face in the region, having appeared on WHBF-TV’s Sunday political talk show “4 the Record” 70 times since 2016.
His personal political highlights included attending the 2004 Democratic National Convention as a Kerry Delegate to experience then state Senator Barack Obama’s epic red state/blue state speech that electrified Democrats and working with David Axelrod & Associates to end the GOP’s 30-year control of the Iowa Governor’s Mansion in 1998. McNeil was also key in the introduction of State Senator Barack Obama to the Quad Cities on October 2, 2002.
