Immigration

Ribble said he supported securing the southern border of the U.S. to reduce illegal immigration, but he also advocated fixing the immigration system to make it easier for people to enter the U.S. legally.

"The policy needs to be fluid enough that, in times of very high employment in the United States, the legal process would allow more workers to enter, particularly in that lower rung of occupations that are most difficult to fill," he said. "In times of low employment, you begin to close the gate and restrict."

Ribble's opponents in the Republican primary accused him of flip-flopping on immigration. As president of the National Roofing Contractors Association in 2006, he told a magazine, "There is temptation in Congress to tighten up our borders and limit the flow of immigrants into this country, yet almost half of our work force is from outside the U.S. We have to find some reasonable solutions to this issue."

Tea Party

Ribble won the endorsement of the Fox Valley Initiative, the local branch of the tea party, a conservative grassroots movement that gained power in 2010.

Unusually, Ribble won support from both establishment Republicans and the tea party, groups who were often at odds in 2010.

Social Security

Ribble called for an overhaul of the Social Security program. But said he thought the revamp could take a generation or more.

"It has to change," Ribble said. "It will bankrupt this country if it doesn't change."

Health Care

In an op-ed, Ribble wrote that the health-care overhaul enacted by President Obama didn't actually reduce health- care costs "and has only made our system larger, more cumbersome and costly."

"Reducing frivolous lawsuits, increasing competition and reducing bureaucracy are areas where virtually all can agree progress should be made, yet they were left out of the Democrats' 'reform' package," Ribble said.

"I'm a roofer by trade and, when a roof leaks, it means the job wasn't done right," he wrote. "Washington's big-government health-care law is a leaky roof with trillion-dollar consequences."

Taxes

Ribble supports extending the tax cuts passed by George W. Bush for at least two more years.

"In the middle of the worst economic downturn in a generation, it makes no sense for the goverinment to be considering increasing taxes on any Americans," he said.

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