On Wednesday, about a week after she was re-elected as Illinois state comptroller, Susana Mendoza announced that she was joining the already-crowded 2019 race for mayor of Chicago. State Rep. La Shawn Ford also jumped in this week. Mendoza and Ford, like all the major candidates in this very blue city, are Democrats.
Mendoza’s move was not a surprise, especially since just before Election Day, a video leaked of her saying she was running for mayor. Her team said at the time that this footage was stolen from her campaign, and that Mendoza had only filmed it in case she decided to run for mayor right after winning statewide. The video didn’t seem to cause Mendoza any problems at the ballot box last week, though, and she was re-elected 60-37.
Mendoza would be the city’s first Latina mayor, as well as the second woman to ever hold this office. She’s also a longtime ally of the powerful and controversial state House Speaker Mike Madigan. She’s reportedly been courting several of retiring Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s allies and donors as well, but she made sure to distance herself from the incumbent in her announcement video. Mendoza declared that, while she was city clerk, she had “fought Mayor Emanuel’s efforts to drastically raise city sticker prices.”
Ford, who represents much of the West Side in the state House, also announced he was in this week. If he won, Ford would be the second African American elected mayor (the first being the late Harold Washington). Ford is known for promoting criminal justice reform, including his support for microloans for former offenders and legislation to prevent private sector employers from asking applicants about their criminal history.
Ford has also generated some headlines over his career. In 2012, he was indicted for bank fraud. Ford always maintained his innocence argued that he was targeted because of his race and position, and two years later, prosecutors dropped the charges in exchange for him pleading guilty on a single misdemeanor tax fraud charge. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote at the time that this was a “rare and embarrassing climbdown for the U.S. Attorney’s office.” Earlier this year, Ford also got attention when he went on “Fox & Friends” and argued that Emanuel should work with the Trump administration to tackle gun violence, declaring, “As long as we’re divided and fighting against the president, it’s not going to happen.”
A number of other notable candidates are already in the race. Here is the full list as of Wednesday:
- Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown
- Former Chicago Board of Education President and 2011 candidate Gery Chico
- Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley
- Attorney Amara Enyia
- State Rep. La Shawn Ford
- Former Chicago Police Board president Lori Lightfoot
- Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy
- State Comptroller Susana Mendoza
- Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle
- Former Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas
The candidate filing deadline is Nov. 26. All the candidates will face off in the nonpartisan Feb. 26 primary, and in the very likely event that no one takes a majority of the vote, there would be an April 2 runoff.