Our Daily Show Interview! Getting to Know: Rosetta Rosie Brown- Candidate (D) District 111
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ALTON - Rosetta “Rosie” Brown, Alton Alderwoman of the Fourth Ward, hopes to represent District 111.
Brown (D) has challenged incumbent State Representative Amy Elik (R) for the position. In a recent interview on “Our Daily Show!” with C.J. Nasello, Brown spoke about her views and her goals if she wins the seat.
“You’ve got to make a believer out of people. I’m not going to wait until I actually win this election to do the work,” Brown said. “I want the people of District 111 to know that I’m very passionate and very much concerned about their needs.”
Brown pointed to Bethalto’s recent water issues as a major concern. She said she would have “held the state-level and the local-level administration responsible” for getting the water lines replaced and organizing water donations.
“I would not have been able to sleep at night knowing the children have to bathe in it, drink it, the babies’ formula. A lot of people can’t afford to go out and buy drinking water,” she said. “That would’ve been very much a concern, and those would be my suggestions.”
She said she has heard from several constituents who are concerned about crime, taxes, and job security, especially for Granite City steelworkers. A former union rep, Brown said she “understand[s] the dynamics of it” and “will be fighting for you all and working families, period.”
In Wood River, Brown is interested in seeing more economic development. She pointed to “infrastructure concerns” in East Alton and crime rate and infrastructure issues in Alton as other concerns.
As an Alton alderwoman, Brown is known for organizing field trips and other events for kids. She promised these initiatives would continue on a larger scale if she represents District 111.
“We need youth-based programs,” she explained. “We need those in order to prevent the crime, which has lately been done at the hands of our juveniles. We want to definitely do things to shift the mindset of our youth. I’ll continue to do those programs, and I’ll do them in a more widespread situation. Everybody can feel like, ‘I belong.’”
Brown is especially proud of the work she did to promote a bathroom installation at Killion Park in Alton’s Fourth Ward. She is also pleased to work with Brand New Village, a local coalition that aims to create mentoring programs for boys and teens and transform greenspace into community gardens, among other initiatives.
Brown added that it’s important to her to make sure District 111 is represented in Springfield and receives the same resources as other parts of Illinois.
“That’s one of the main reasons why I’m running, because I want to be your voice on the state level and make sure District 111 downstate is taken care of,” she said. “Some of that funding, that economic development, that infrastructure, mental health resources, education resources — I want to make sure that's evenly distributed among our people.”
Above all, she encourages people to vote in the upcoming 2026 election. She plans to host voter registration drives in the coming months.
“If you don’t vote, then you don’t have a reason to complain,” she added. “If you want to see change, you’ve got to go to the polls.”
For more information about Rosetta “Rosie” Brown and her campaign for state representative, visit her official website.
