Congressman Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia Will Run For Chicago Mayor In 2023

CHICAGO — Jesus “Chuy” Garcia says he believes in a Chicago for everyone, something that he believes isn’t being achieved under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration.

Garcia believes he is the right person to take the city in the right direction, which prompted him to announce on Thursday that he will join the list of candidates that will run against Lightfoot in next year’s Mayoral election.

The U.S. Representative who said in a campaign video he has lived in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood and represented the city's southwest side for 55 years, held a press conference on Thursday morning to formally announce his candidacy for the office.

The Sun-Times was the first to report that Garcia will make another run for Mayor after he was unsuccessful in winning the office against Rahm Emanuel, who Garcia pushed to a run-off before Emanuel was re-elected to office. Garcia, 55, told the newspaper that he was wrong to back Lightfoot in 2019 and said the Mayor has not delivered on the promises she made to voters when she was elected.

He also told the Sun-Times that as part of his efforts to correct Chicago’s problem with violent crime, he would fire current Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.

"Chicago is at a crossroads," Garcia said at a rally on Thursday morning, announcing his entry into the crowded race for Mayor, which includes three current City Council members. "It’s not like that for everyone.

“Chicago needs a leader with a vision of our future and the know-how and the empathy to get us there together. From crime to unemployment to the shortage of affordable housing, there is so much we need to build."

Garcia was re-elected to Congress in Tuesday’s general election when he collected more than 67 percent of the vote. He has hinted that he may take another run at Mayor, but his announcement on Thursday will come on the 40th anniversary of when former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington first announced he would seek office.

In the video released on Thursday, Garcia paints Chicago as a great city that is in need of new leadership in an effort to make it more inclusive. He said that too many residents face an array of issues that make living in the city more difficult than it should be.

“We live in the City of Broad Shoulders, but today, Chicagoans are calling out for help,” Garcia says in the video. “From crime to unemployment to affordable housing, there is so much uncertainty ahead. People suffered through a pandemic, we experienced a racial reckoning that underscored our painful history of inequity. People are still living paycheck to paycheck and many live in fear of losing their homes, of losing their livelihoods and losing their loved ones.

“We need and deserve a safer, kinder, and more prosperous Chicago for all.”

In a statement issued Thursday, Lightfoot's office criticized the timing of Garcia's announcement, citing the push Democrats are trying to make to give the party more power in Congress.

“While Mayor Lightfoot is doing the hard work of leading our city through challenging times, career politician Congressman Garcia is prioritizing his own ambitions. Mr. Garcia spent months dithering on whether to get in this race, saying publicly he’d only run if Democrats lost the House,” the mayor's office said in a statement. “Now, a mere 36 hours after voters reelected him to Congress, and as Republicans prepare to use their new slim majority to strip away our rights, Mr. Garcia is abandoning ship and going after a fellow progressive Democrat. That’s not the tough, principled leadership our city needs.”

But Garcia, who never mentioned Lightfoot by name in the two-minute video posted to YouTube and to his social media channels, said that his focus is on Chicago and on bringing the city together at a time when unity is needed most.

Garcia said that now is the time to revitalize Chicago’s communities and schools and bring safety back to the city’s streets. He said that the city gave him a “chance to dream big”, which is something he wants to provide to more people if he is elected next year.

“We’re standing together to say it’s time for City Hall to work on behalf of all its people and a Mayor that will bring us together and unite us rather than driving us part,” Garcia said. “I intend to be that Mayor — a Mayor for all.”