Charles Edward Miller/Wikimedia Commons
Jesús "Chuy" García speaks at a Resist Trump rally in Chicago in 2017.
A sea of blue “Chuy” signs filled Chicago’s Navy Pier on November 10 as U.S. Representative Jesús “Chuy” García announced his 2023 mayoral campaign. Already a progressive frontrunner, García joined nine other candidates hoping to dethrone Lori Lightfoot—whom he had endorsed for mayor four years ago.
Lightfoot is the first progressive-identifying candidate to win office in Chicago since Mayor Harold Washington was elected in 1983. She won her 2019 election in a runoff against fellow progressive and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle by promising to reduce violence, avoid corrupt politics, and create a Department of the Environment. But many say these promises remain unfulfilled.
Lightfoot’s conflicts with left-leaning city officials and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) have led to criticism from some of her former political allies. In particular, she has come under fire for blasting the CTU for refusing to teach in-person during last January’s COVID-19 spike, conflict with alderpersons, and a disruptive response to the 2020 protests regarding the killing of George Floyd.
A November poll conducted by Impact Research expects García to beat Lightfoot by seven percent in the February 28 election, but anticipates he would beat Lightfoot by 31 percent if the contest goes to an April 4 runoff election.
“This election shows the possibility of truly transforming Chicago politics.”
City alderpersons Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez and Byron Sigcho-Lopez are among political progressives throwing their support behind other candidates in the race. Rodriguez-Sanchez tells The Progressive that seemingly uncontroversial progressive measures, such as her proposed ordinance to replace the observance of Christopher Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, were met with backlash from the mayor’s administration.“I thought, ‘Great, we are going to open these four years with a statement of our commitment to racial justice,’” Roriguez-Sanchez says. “I never thought that was going to be something the mayor would fight so hard against. She decided to side with the pro-Columbus battalions and she fought me every step of the way.”
This opposition also highlights how Lightfoot—like former mayors Rahm Emmanuel (2011-2019), Richard M. Daley (1989-2011), and Richard J. Daley (1955-1976)—has used her power to appoint committee chairs to control what bills go through City Council.
“If I introduced [legislation] to the Committee on Public Safety, for example,” Roriguez-Sanchez adds, “and the mayor doesn’t want that to be discussed, it’s not going to be discussed because she is the one that appoints the chair and the chair decides what we are going to discuss or not.”
While the politics of the Trump era made it possible for a candidate like Lightfoot to align with progressives in 2019, it will be difficult to make the same pitch in 2023, DePaul University political scientist Nicholas Kachiroubas tells The Progressive. He says that the political prediction “that Lori Lightfoot isn’t being seen as the progressive choice I think is going to be true, and it’s going to only be exacerbated by Chuy García in the race.”
García, a former Cook County Commissioner who championed housing and worker rights in that role, gained wider prominence when he ran against Emmanuel in Chicago’s 2015 mayoral election. His popularity propelled Chicago into its first ever run-off mayoral election. Though he lost, his failed campaign boosted Chicago’s progressive movement. García’s 2015 campaign arguably opened the door for more progressive candidates, as Lightfoot claimed to be. In 2019, García was elected to represent Illinois’ Fourth District in the United States Congress and is currently the vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Lightfoot’s limited political track record and a limited amount of media attention on the City Council’s progressive members in 2019 meant that Lightfoot’s original progressive claims went largely unchallenged, says Loyola University Chicago political scientist Eric Hansen. Now that more politicians like Rodriguez-Sanchez and Sigcho-Lopez have won City Council seats, he adds, Chicago progressives hold more power and are getting increased media coverage, making it more difficult for Lightfoot to avoid controversy.
Another important element in this election: the high number of the City Council members who have decided not to run again in 2023—putting several key seats into contention.
Kachiroubas argues that if García continues gaining steam in the mayoral race, it could impact the city’s other elections, and the open City Council seats in particular. “He’ll be able to pull the support base together from across the city,” he says.
On the other hand, Hansen says whether or not a candidate is or proclaims themselves to be progressive won’t necessarily be a deciding factor for Chicago voters. Kachiroubas agrees, noting that many of the alders are leaving the Council because they don’t stand a chance of re-election due to their track records on issues like public safety and gun violence.
“This election shows the possibility of truly transforming Chicago politics,” Rodriguez-Sanchez said. “It means we might be able to pass [legislation to help] mental health crisis response in Chicago that incorporates the public mental health clinics. It would probably mean passing Just Cause for Eviction. It could mean changing the constitution of our council so that [alderpersons] can actually make decisions.”