Politics
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza Launches Chicago Mayoral Campaign
Video: Joining “Chicago Tonight” is Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza. (Produced by Joel Ortiz)
The crowd of challengers vying to become Chicago’s next mayor grew larger Wednesday, as Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza threw her hat into the ring for the 2027 race.
Mendoza kicked off her mayoral campaign Wednesday with a social media video which repeatedly touted “progress” over promises.
“I believe government should answer to the people it serves, not political insiders or special interests,” she said in the video. “Because Chicagoans are tired of paying more and getting less, tired of politics that divides people without solving problems.”
She joins U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley and businessmen Joe Holberg and Liam Stanton in seeking to unseat Mayor Brandon Johnson. That list is expected to continue growing with Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias interested in running as well.
In her launch video, Mendoza said Chicago families are being squeezed by “rising rents, higher fees and property taxes.” She added that communities feel less safe and small businesses are struggling to survive.
She also highlighted her own accomplishments throughout her career as comptroller, legislator and Chicago’s city clerk, pointing to her efforts to modernize city stickers and eliminate billions in unpaid state bills.
When Mendoza announced last year that she would not seek another term as comptroller, she said she had a “specific mission” in mind — a listening tour across Chicago to hear from residents about what they needed from the city.
“I took the time to listen, time to reflect and time to decide how I could make the biggest impact on people’s lives,” she told supporters Wednesday morning at a campaign launch event at the Los Comales taqueria in Little Village.
Mendoza said what she found was that Chicago faces three separate crises over finances, public safety and a lack of confidence that things will get better. If elected, she said she would curb City Hall spending, rebuild trust between residents and police and ensure a safe, clean and reliable CTA transit system.
Mendoza also blamed Johnson and his administration for being too comfortable spending money they don’t have and becoming “disconnected from our neighborhoods.”
“Chicago has tossed mayors out of office for blizzards, corruption and incompetence. Right now, Chicago is facing a blizzard of incompetence,” she said to applause. “We deserve better.”
Mendoza previously ran for mayor in 2019, finishing in fifth place with 9% of votes in the 14-candidate race, which was eventually won in a runoff by Lori Lightfoot. Mendoza opted not to seek reelection to her comptroller position this year.
Her previous mayoral run was hampered significantly by her ties to a pair of now infamous former Chicago alderpeople — Ed Burke (14th Ward) and Danny Solis (25th Ward).
Burke had previously supported Mendoza’s election as city clerk, and she often referred to his wife, former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, as her “mentor.” But the powerful alderperson was hit with attempted extortion charges in early 2019, just months before the election.
A federal jury later convicted Burke on 13 counts of racketeering, bribery and extortion, thanks in part to the efforts of Solis, who operated for years as an undercover mole for the government following his own bribery charge.
Mendoza, who received campaign contributions from both men, opted to donate those funds rather than keeping them.
In an interview with “Chicago Tonight” Wednesday, Mendoza said of Burke: “Any elected official who has ever served for more than 10 minutes over the last 20 to 30 years would have to have had a working relationship with him (Burke) and many other elected officials, in the same way I’ve worked with Barack Obama, I had photos with him, so it’s just really ridiculous to even bring that up. I’ll tell you why — because if you go talk to any Chicagoan out in the streets, they’re going to tell you that they don’t even know who that is for the most part, but they do care about the violence in their streets, they care about the fact that we’re hemorrhaging money and charging them more in property taxes. … I will be the mayor that focuses on the real issues that people care about because really nobody cares about that nonsense.”
Mendoza has been a vocal critic of Johnson, repeatedly blasting his push to do away with the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology, saying in 2024 social media post that the city should be “prepared for an increase in homicides among primarily black & brown people as a result of them bleeding out” once the system was removed.
Citing a recent report that Chicago police responded four minutes faster to the most serious 911 calls for help in the six months after ShotSpotter was removed, Johnson said his administration was “doing what works” instead of “wasting taxpayer dollars for walkie talkies on poles that overpolice communities without improving safety.”
Mendoza replied to that social media post, stating: “Wow. Tell that to the families of the 83 gunshot victims who bled out and died where those ‘walkie talkies on poles’ used to be.”
“It’s time we have somebody with a proven track record of solving big problems as mayor,” Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward) said Wednesday. “This is Susana’s moment, and she’s ready. And this is Chicago’s moment, too, because together we’re here to help Susana get the job done and get our city back on track.”
Johnson has thus far declined to say whether he plans to run for reelection, and does not joke as often that he plans to serve as long — or longer — than former Mayor Richard M. Daley, who won six elections and spent 22 years in office.
But Johnson told WTTW News last month he was not unprepared to wage a fight for a second term as an underdog, with many at City Hall writing off his chances.
Capitol News Illinois and WTTW News’ Heather Cherone and Joel Ortiz contributed to this report.
