Elected: 2019. 

A Puerto Rican native, Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez has been a longtime advocate for public education, immigrant rights and labor rights. She began her career in public service in Chicago when she settled in Albany Park and acted as the Resident Director of the Albany Park Theater Project. Rodriguez-Sanchez worked there for eight years before throwing her hat in the ring for alderman.

In 2019 she faced incumbent and former Illinois House of Representatives member Ald Deb. Mell, and narrowly defeated her with just 13 votes in a runoff election. Her win ended a nearly-40-year Mell dynasty in the 33rd ward, as Deb. Mell’s father Ald. Dick Mell had previously held the alderman’s seat. She’s the first Latinx alderman to represent the 33rd Ward and serves as the chair of the immigration committee on the council’s Latino Caucus.

She’s also  a member of the Progressive Caucus. Rodriguez-Sanchez has championed progressive issues since taking office, exemplified by her introduction of the “Treatment Not Trauma” proposal, which would send social workers and paramedics to people experiencing mental health crises rather than police officers. She’s been a vocal opponent of many of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s policies and voted against both of the mayor’s first budget proposals. 

Jennifer Maddox is making her second run for alderman of the 20th Ward after finishing in seventh place in the 2019 contest. Maddox is a retired Chicago Police officer who founded a nonprofit after-school and summer program called Future Ties which aims to tackle the root causes of violence and assist children affected by violence.

Andre Smith is making his fourth run for the 20th Ward aldermanic seat. In his last campaign in 2019, Smith finished in fifth place. Smith is a pastor and entrepreneur who founded the group Chicago Against Violence,   In 2018, Smith’s campaign faced accusations of trying to buy petition signatures by offering people free turkeys for Thanksgiving and rumors existed about his campaign volunteers “bullying voters,” according to the Reader. But, the Reader further reported, Smith has been popular in his ward by taking on the jobs typically expected of the alderman’s office when service has been lacking, such as addressing potholes, organizing toy drives or interceding on residents’ behalf to contact ward staff.

Tim Noonan serves on the local school council at Kellogg Elementary School and in 2016 was part of a group that opposed an effort authored by Ald. Matthew O’Shea (19) to close Kellogg and merge the institution with Sutherland Elementary School, a plan that would have also required Keller Regional Gifted Center to move into the Kellogg building and Mt. Greenwood Elementary to expand into the Keller building to address overcrowding. The plan did not come to fruition. Noonan was behind a 19^th Ward mutual aid organization during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and about five years ago collaborated with the Beverly Area Planning Association to help fund a project to restore a monument to Gold Star Families in the Dan Ryan Woods.

Michael Cummings is a retired Chicago Police officer who retired in 2021 after 35 years of service. In 2014, Cummings was investigated by the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs over allegations he made a racist comment that year at a bar housed in a property he owned.

Though “the allegations that then-CPD officer Mike Cummings made a racist comment at McNally’s bar ... were not sustained,” according to the Beverly Review, he was suspended for 90 days for violating a rule that prohibits CPD employees from “engaging directly or indirectly in the ownership, maintenance or operation of a tavern or retail liquor establishment.”

Cummings earned a degree in business from St. Xavier University, according to his website.

Ald. Matthew O'Shea (19) was an aide to former 19th Ward Ald. Virginia Rugai and has served in the City Council since 2011. O’Shea supported Jerry Joyce in the early stages of the 2019 mayoral election but supported now-Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the 2019 runoff over Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, alongside other pro-police leaders who believed Lightfoot’s law enforcement background would make her tenure more attentive to the needs of first responders.

But O'Shea publicly slammed Lightfoot after the July 2021 murder of Officer Ella French, saying officers felt like city leaders “do not have their backs.” Many of the constituents in the 19^th ward are city employees.

Educator Aida Flores is making another run for 25th Ward alderman after coming in fourth place in 2019. Flores works for Chicago Public Schools. She is currently the assistant principal at Darwin Elementary, and she has previously been principal at Hernandez Middle School, assistant principal at Kelvyn Park High School and a history teacher at Benito Juarez High School, where she herself went.

Howard Ray is a Chicago native from the West Side who attended Iowa State University and Roosevelt University, according to his campaign website. Ray has worked for the public sector for much of his career, holding positions with the Chicago Transit Authority, U.S. Postal Service and currently the City of Chicago, his website says. As an organizer with the West Humboldt Park Community Coalition, Ray advocated for the creation of a community benefits agreement between the neighborhood and Amazon as the company planned to open a facility there.

Michelle Harris first came to the City Council in 2006 when she was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley to fill Todd Stroger's aldermanic seat after he was elected Cook County Board President. As current chair of the City Council’s Committee on Committees and Rules — one of the three most powerful committees — Harris plays a prominent role in council politics as the rules committee oversees the operations of Council, appointments to its committees and the referral of legislation to committees. As rules committee chair, Harris is also empowered to hire the City Council Sergeant of Arms and its security staff.

Perhaps most notably in her role as rules committee chair, Harris oversaw the decennial ward remapping process that played out over a tense several months, finally ending in May 2022 with an 11th hour map compromise between members of the Latino Caucus and another group of members of the Black Caucus and several white aldermen. The tumultuous road to the final map deal came more than five months after aldermen missed a critical Dec. 1 deadline to vote on a new ward map and included several furious rounds of negotiations between the two aldermanic camps.

After she was appointed to the 8th Ward seat, Harris won reelection in 2007 with a solid majority against a crowded field of seven challengers. She has yet to face a serious challenger in subsequent reelections. Harris was considered a serious contender for former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s vacated position of chair of the state Democratic party, but she narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly in a hotly contested struggle. Shortly after that, Harris took over as Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s floor leader in City Hall and continues to serve in the position.

Linda Hudson unsuccessfully ran for alderman in the 8^th Ward in 2019 and also ran unsuccessfully for 8^th Ward Democratic Committeeman in 2016. She was also one of the lead organizers of the campaign to get the Cook County Board of Commissioners to repeal the county’s sugary beverage tax, the “Can the Tax” Campaign. Hudson is the founder and president of the Eighth Ward Accountability Coalition and former president of the Avalon Park Advisory Council.  

Elected: 1999

A south side native, Anthony Beale joined the City Council as one of the youngest elected officials in 1999, successfully unseating the deep Shaw family political dynasty. Beale ran his first election on a campaign of reforming the ward, and has handily won five re-elections since.

His time as alderman has been defined by his goal to drive business growth in the economically struggling ward. He called the flow of new development into his ward a “renaissance,” with the spike of development in the new Pullman Historic District.

Beale worked closely with David Doig and the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives when they partnered with Ryan Companies to construct the sprawling Pullman Crossings development, a massive industrial project along 1-94 that could host businesses like Whole Foods distribution centers.

Though Beale was close allies to former mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, he has been one of Mayor Lori Lighfoot’s chief critics.

Cleopatra Draper is a Chicago-area radio personality who has hosted a show on WVON 1690 AM, who earned a communications degree from Eastern Illinois University as an undergraduate and who later obtained a master’s in social work from University of Illinois at Chicago. Draper is endorsed by United Working Families Illinois. Draper founded a nonprofit during the pandemic called Roses in Roseland which distributes essential household goods to residents and groceries to food pantries and senior homes.

Cameron Barnes, a former National Youth Director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, says on his website he’s passionate about activism. Barnes earned a marketing degree from Central State University and serves as an associate minister at New Faith Missionary Baptist Church. Barnes also works as a resident services coordinator for Capital Realty Group, according to his LinkedIn.

Yessenia Carreón campaigned in 2019 to be 10th Ward alderman but a challenge to her nominating petitions got her kicked off the ballot. Carreón worked as a staffer in former 10th Ward Ald. John Pope’s office. She has also served on boards such as the Metropolitan Family Services Board, South Chicago Artist Coalition and South Chicago boards focused on seniors, health and housing. Carreón has worked to help put on summer festivals as chief operating officer of media company ONT.

A longtime environmental activist and lifelong Southeast resident, Oscar Sanchez made headlines in 2021 when he joined a group of Southeast siders in a hunger strike against Southside Recycling’s (then General Iron) proposed metal scrapping facility in his neighborhood. Sanchez launched his campaign on platform of “clean air, equitable education, walkable and accessible communities, affordable housing, sustainable and resilient workforce development and collective community safety,” he said in an interview with Block Club Chicago.

Ana Guajardo is the daughter of undocumented immigrants and co-founded the Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, an immigrant worker advocacy group, according to reporting from Block Club Chicago. Guajardo, running to replace retiring Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10), has praised the outgoing alderman’s advocacy for working families. Guajardo secured the endorsement of mayoral candidate U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

Jessica Venegas is a police officer in Chicago and also works as a private practice attorney specializing in family law, immigration and real estate. Venegas founded a nonprofit called Tia and Gramma Organization which assists families and youth who lack resources.