South Side Native John Kozlar, 29, Running for Chicago Mayor


Another candidate has thrown their hat into the busy mayoral race.

Mayoral hopeful John Kozlar, a native of Bridgeport on the city’s South Side, isn’t exactly new to politics – though he’s never held political office. Kozlar ran for 11th Ward alderman in 2011 when he was 21 years old, almost forcing a runoff with then-Ald. James Balcer who had been in office for 13 years. Kozlar did this with only $520 in his campaign coffers, according to his campaign website.

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Losing, however, did not dampen Kozlar’s spirits. In 2015, he ran for alderman of his ward again. This time he was victorious in forcing a runoff, but he eventually lost to his opponent, Richard M. Daley’s nephew, Patrick Daley Thompson.

Kozlar says his limited political experience doesn’t matter in his race for mayor of Chicago.

“The experience of politics is a little bit different … you can be worse off in year number eight than you are in year number one. Political experience doesn’t mean good experience,” Kozlar said.

He thinks Mayor Rahm Emanuel should not be running again. “He undermined our police department. He put our schools in a very rough situation and our city finances are even worse,” he said.

Kozlar joins us to discuss his solutions to the problems Chicago faces.

More interviews with mayoral candidates:

Jerry Joyce

Bob Fioretti

Susana Mendoza

La Shawn Ford

Gery Chico

Bill Daley

Amara Enyia

Lori Lightfoot

Paul Vallas

Dorothy Brown

Neal Sáles-Griffin

Willie Wilson

Garry McCarthy


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