Chuy García

García was born in Mexico in the state of Durango.[7] His father was a farm laborer under the U.S. government's World War II-era bracero program.

García moved to the U.S. in 1965 with permanent resident status. The family settled in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, where García continues to reside. He attended St. Rita High School, graduating in 1974. García became a citizen of the United States in 1977.[8]

García worked at the Legal Assistance Foundation from 1977 to 1980 as he worked toward a B.A. in political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[9] He then became assistant director of the Little Village Neighborhood Housing Service, where he worked until 1984.[9] García also has a master's degree from University of Illinois at Chicago in urban public planning and policy.[10]

After his defeat, García left office in January 1999, founded and became Executive Director of the Little Village Community Development Corporation. He helped grow what is now known as Enlace to 27 full-time employees, 120 part-time employees, and an annual budget of $5 million.[21] In June 2005, he helped found the Latino Action Research Network, a PAC to help better represent the city's Latino population.[22]

On Mother's Day 2001, García and members of the group demanded the construction of a high school promised to the community, but unfunded. Fourteen parents and grandparents organized a hunger strike. Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas initially refused to meet with the hunger strikers, but by the end of the first week, he visited their tent to negotiate terms.[23] The hunger strike lasted 19 days and increased public pressure on the school district to fund the project. In August 2001, the newly appointed Chicago Public Schools CEO, Arne Duncan, reallocated funds to begin construction on the school.[23] Community members continued to advocate for participation in designing the new school, and door-to-door parent surveys contributed to the curricular focus of each school on the campus.[24]

In 2010, García ran for the Cook County Board of Commissioners, challenging 7th district member and HDO candidate Joseph Mario Moreno in the Democratic primary. García defeated him, 9,602 votes (54.74%) to 7,939 (45.26%).[25] In the general election, he defeated Green Party nominee Paloma M. Andrade, 24,612 votes (86.29%) to 3,912 (13.72%).[26] After the election, Toni Preckwinkle appointed García Floor Leader. He was reelected unopposed to a second term on the Board of Commissioners in the 2014 elections.[27]

García entered the mayoral race against incumbent mayor Rahm Emanuel after being recruited by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, a leading progressive candidate who had fallen ill and was forced to call off her own campaign.[28] García won 34% of the vote in the February 24 primary, and Emanuel failed to win more than 50%, forcing a runoff election on April 7.[29] The campaign received national attention, and some considered it a preview of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed García in what he called a "political revolution in Chicago."[30] García opposed the Ashland Bus Rapid Transit plan,[31] the Belmont flyover,[32] and red light cameras.[33] Emanuel won the runoff election with 55% of the vote.[34]

García in 2017 at a protest against Donald Trump

García endorsed Bernie Sanders for President of the United States in the 2016 election and the 2020 election.[35][36] In the 2016 general election, García was a presidential elector from Illinois, casting a vote for Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in the electoral college.[37]

After incumbent and formal rival Rahm Emanuel announced that he would not seek a third term in 2019, many people speculated that a high-ranking Latino politician would enter the race. Gutiérrez and García were seen as potential candidates. After Gutiérrez declined to run, he expressed his intent to draft García into the race.[38][39] Sanders expressed his desire for García to "take a look for running for mayor."[40] García ultimately did not run.

In the 2019 mayoral runoff election, García endorsed Lori Lightfoot, delivering a blow to the already faltering campaign of Lightfoot's opponent, Toni Preckwinkle.[41] Preckwinkle, who had been García's ally on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, had declined to endorse him for mayor in 2015.[42] Lightfoot defeated Preckwinkle in a landslide.

García at a congressional campaign rally in South Lawndale, Chicago, February 2018

While in congress, García has become an important power broker in Illinois politics. He was an ally of then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.[10] García first aligned himself with Madigan years earlier, when he supported Madigan's contested 2016 reelection.[43] In July 2022, a staffer of his published a now deleted tweet on his government account calling a critic "borderline retarded" and a "f–ing dipshit".[44]

Immigration

García with Toni Preckwinkle and First Lady Jill Biden at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen in October 2021

During a congressional hearing in July 2019, García asked former ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan of the Trump administration family separation policy: "how [he] can possibly allow this to happen under [his] watch, [does he] not care? Is it because these children do not look like children that are around [him]?" Right-wing commentators widely condemned García's questions; Homan called them "disgusting".[51]

On December 10, 2019, García introduced the New Way Forward Act, an immigration reform bill.[52][53]

Committee assignments

García with President Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Representative Maxine Waters in 2021

For the 118th Congress:[59]

• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Aviation
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

García's 2023 mayoral campaign logo

Early in 2022, García had been seen as a potential candidate to challenge Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the 2023 election. He had previously said that Lightfoot was "fac[ing] the toughest reelection challenge of any mayor in 40 years".[61]

Before entering the race, García expressed interest in it because of Lightfoot's unpopularity and a poll that showed him leading Lightfoot 43% to 34%.[62] On November 10, 2022, García announced his second campaign for mayor of Chicago in a press conference at Navy Pier.[63][64] The date of his announcement was the 40th anniversary of García's mentor and ally Harold Washington's announcement of his 1983 mayoral candidacy.[3] García's announcement came only two days after the 2022 U.S. House of Representatives election in which he was reelected.[65] Lightfoot criticized García for "abandoning Congress" when the Democratic Party was losing its majority in the House.[66]

García was late to enter the mayoral race, the last of Lightfoot's eight challengers to announce his campaign.[67] By the time he announced his candidacy, a number of groups that had supported his 2015 campaign, such as the Chicago Teachers Union and United Working Families, had pledged their support to Brandon Johnson's candidacy. In the months before García launched his campaign, such groups had grown impatient with his lack of a campaign announcement.[67][68][69] García asked United Working Families to postpone making a mayoral endorsement, but due to his refusal to give them a date by which he planned to announce whether he would run, they endorsed Johnson in September 2022.[68]

García was endorsed by former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn,[70] former Chicago mayor and Harold Washington's vice mayor David Orr,[71] former U.S. Representative Luis Gutiérrez,[72] U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Mike Quigley,[73][74] Aldermen Andre Vasquez,[75] Michael Rodriguez,[72] and Felix Cardona Jr.,[72] Illinois state representatives Theresa Mah and Robyn Gabel,[76][72] activist Dolores Huerta,[77] United Farm Workers,[77] and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150.[78]

García was the only Latino candidate in the election.[79] Along with Paul Vallas, who is white, García was one of only two candidates on the ballot who was not black.[80]

García faced controversy over political donations he received from Sam Bankman-Fried[81] and stories that allege links to illicit activities by Michael Madigan involving Commonwealth Edison.[82][83] Lightfoot seized on this and ran ads against him focusing on these controversies.[84]

As Vallas began to rise in the polls, Garcia joined Lightfoot in attacking Vallas as aligned with the Republican Party.[85][86] This included accusing Vallas of being inadequately pro-choice, despite Vallas's record of claiming to be pro-choice and endorsements from Planned Parenthood and Personal PAC during his 2002 gubernatorial and 2014 lieutenant gubernatorial campaigns.[86][87] Both García and Lightfoot pointed to a 2009 interview in which Vallas declared himself to be "more of a Republican than a Democrat because, fundamentally, I oppose abortion"[87] and said that "if I were to run for office again, I would run as a Republican".[88] But Vallas also described himself in that interview as "personally pro-choice".[89] Another line of attack García and Lightfoot used against Vallas was criticism of his relationship with and endorsement by Chicago's police union.[90] García cast Vallas's closeness to the FOP as indicating that there would be "no police accountability" under a Vallas mayoralty. García also derided the police union as "far right".[91]

García also traded barbs with Brandon Johnson.[92] Johnson said García had "abandon[ed] the progressive movement” and was no different from Lightfoot in his proposals for combating violent crime.[67] He also said García had been absent from work on a number of issues that impacted Latino neighborhoods in the city.[93] García characterized Johnson's tax proposals as incomplete and outside of a mayor's ability to enact. He questioned whether Johnson, a former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, would be able to objectively negotiate with them on behalf of the city.[67]

Despite having once been a formidable front-runner in the election,[94] García was defeated in the first round of the election. He placed fourth out of nine candidates, receiving 77,222 votes (13.68% of the vote). Vallas and Johnson placed first and second, respectively, and advanced to the runoff.

García placed first in only six of the city's 50 wards. All six were wards represented by Latino aldermen. In five of them, the runner-up was Vallas.[79] One factor in García's weak performance was that turnout in Latino-majority wards of the city, voter turnout lagged behind the rest of the city.[95] Turnout in Hispanic wards had also been low in the 2019 Chicago mayoral election.[96] Additionally, García failed to place first in four Northwest-side Latino-majority wards in areas of the city that had given him strong support in his previous mayoral campaign, with Johnson placing first in two of those wards and Vallas placing first in the other two. García also lagged behind Johnson in other areas of the city that had supported him in 2015.[95] On March 17, García endorsed Johnson's candidacy in the runoff election.[97][98]

García with his family

García married Evelyn García in 1980 and they have three children.[113] They live in the Little Village neighborhood in South Lawndale, Chicago.[10][114] In April 2023, Garcia's daughter, Rosa, died at age 28.[115]

• List of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States Congress
• Mexicans in Chicago

• Detailed article on García's 1998 primary defeat

Wikiquote has quotations related to Chuy García.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chuy García.

• Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García official U.S. House website
• Campaign website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart