Maria Hadden was first elected to represent the 49th Ward in the City Council in 2019, beating 20-year incumbent Joe Moore. A housing organizer and nonprofit executive who had built coalitions on the Far North Side for more than a decade, Hadden garnered more than 63 percent of the vote in 2019 to oust Moore. Prior to being elected to the City Council, Hadden became a leading voice in the 49th Ward’s participatory budgeting process and founded the nonprofit Our City Our Voice, helping to build neighborhood involvement in local governing decisions.

Upon her election, Hadden became the first and only openly gay Black woman to serve in the City Council. She is a member of the Aldermanic Black Caucus, the LGBT Caucus and the Progressive Reform Caucus. Since taking office, Hadden has been a vocal proponent of drawing down funding for the Chicago Police Department and reinvesting the funds in social services.

Belia Rodriguez is a first-generation Mexican American who has served on the board of directors at the Rogers Park Business Alliance and works as an IT consultant for businesses, nonprofits and schools.

A lifelong Chicagoan, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth is a small business owner and community organizer who has lived in Andersonville for over two decades. Manaa-Hoppenworth has a long background in dance as a classically trained ballerina and graduate of the Chicago Academy for the Arts. She later received her bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago before going on to open the dancewear store Chicago Dance Supply in Andersonville. She’s also worked as a senior account executive with the Chicago Reader since 2018. Manaa-Hoppenworth discovered her knack for politics and organizing during the 2016 presidential election, when she founded two chapters of the Indivisible Project (Indivisible Illinois and Indivisible Illinois 9th District Anderson-Edgewater). 

Currently serving as Illinois’ Assistant Attorney General, Isaac Freilich Jones is a lifelong Chicago resident who has built his career on public and social services. Freilich Jones became a cancer survivor his senior year of high school, which cemented his belief in universal health care. His early career background is in consulting, when he worked as an associate with O-H Community Partners where he advised foundations, local governments and nonprofits on advancing environmentally sustainable development projects. Freilich Jones went on to attend Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago to work in private practice, in which he provided pro bono legal services to low-income renters who faced eviction. He’s also been active in local nonprofits, as he served as the Board President for the Howard Area Community Center. Some of Freilich Jones’s core issues bolstering affordable and public housing, overseeing the completion of the Lawrence-Brywn Mawr modernization project and expanding early childhood education.

Roxanne Volkmann says she’s running to bring “working mom sensibility” to the City Council, according to a Twitter thread she posted announcing her candidacy. Volkmann’s campaign centers around stemming violent crime, increasing mental health resources and pushing back against what she portrays as “out of control” property taxes.

In the thread, she mentioned her son has been a crime victim himself, saying “My son was robbed at gunpoint over the summer. I’ve experienced the phone call that many parents dread and I know it could have been much worse. I will work hard to make it much better.” Volkmann works for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Brian Haag is one of the founders of Green Element Resale, a thrift shop in Edgewater. Haag’s campaign is focused on increasing environmental sustainability policies such as composting and using vacant lots for community gardens. He promises to use aldermanic menu dollars to subsidize people who want to plant native plants and wildflowers on land.

Andy Peters is a political consultant and the owner of TrueNorth Cafe, which had locations in Andersonville and Hyde Park, though the Andersonville location has closed. Peters unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary in June 2022 for House District 13 in the Illinois General Assembly.

During his run for the state legislature Peters told the Windy City Times  “My Andersonville cafe is very political. We have had multiple candidates come here. During the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary, JB Pritzker, Chris Kennedy and Daniel Biss and multiple mayoral candidates came [there].”

According to his LinkedIn, Peters worked in former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office in 2011 as a coordinator of special projects, and Peters spent three years working for the Illinois Restaurant Association as a government relations and event manager. His consultant work includes political action committees, Chicago aldermen and state legislators.

Research scientist and community activist Marianne Lalonde is making another run for 46th Ward alderman, four years after forcing outgoing Ald. James Cappleman (46) into a runoff and losing by just 25 votes. Lalonde is a political organizer who helped start the progressive Lakeview Uptown Independent Political Organization and is an energy efficiency professional. She has also served on the Associates’ Board of Sarah's Circle, the Illinois Environmental Council's Young Professionals Board, the North Lake Shore Drive Study Task Force and on advisory committees at Clarendon Park and Uplift High School, according to her website. She has said the COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies why it’s important to have someone with a scientific background on the City Council.

Bruce Randazzo is a retired city truck driver who spent three decades working for the City of Chicago in the water, aviation and streets and sanitation departments, according to a profile from Block Club Chicago.

In 2012, Randazzo ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat in Illinois state House of Representatives District 20, losing to former Republican state Rep. Michael McAuliffe. Randazzo is self-funding his campaign and does not intend to host fundraisers or solicit money from voters, though he does use campaign volunteers, Block Club reported.

Elected: 2011.

Nicholas Sposato has made his mark on the Chicago City Council as one of few conservatives and the sole open supporter of former President Donald Trump. A lifelong resident of the Northwest Side, Sposato worked as a UPS driver and then a firefighter for 18 years before he made his bid for a City Council seat. When he ran for the 36th seat in 2011, he upset former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pick Ald. John Rice.

After his ward was redistricted into the 38th in 2015, he defeated incumbent Ald. Timothy Cullerton’s pick Heather Sattler and five other challengers with 53 percent of the vote.

Sposato was formerly a member of the Progressive Caucus, but departed from the group in 2017 due to disagreements on LGBTQ rights and social issues – though many members said they’d still work with him on labor issues. He ran unopposed for reelection in 2019 after he knocked opponent Ralph Pawlikowski off the ballot by challenging his petition signatures. His political differences from his fellow council members grown more apparent over his past two terms, as he has vocally opposed police accountability reform and protections for undocumented Chicagoans.

He supported Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the 2019 mayoral runoff, and has mostly voted with the mayor on policy issues. Sposato previously said he would retire in 2023, but announced his run for re-election as his overall health remains intact despite the challenges of his Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.

Former Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Comm. Cynthia Santos worked as chief of staff for former 30th Ward Ald. Michael Wojcik before she ran for the water district commissioner position she’d go on to hold for two decades.

Santos has served on the Illinois Pollution Control Board since 2016. Outside of government, Santos has chaired the Irving Park YMCA board, various school boards and local school councils in her community and served on the Belmont-Central Chamber of Commerce board, she told Block Club Chicago.

Jessie “Jessie” Fuentes is an openly queer activist from Humboldt Park running in the open 26^th Ward race following the decision by Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26) not to seek reelection and withdraw from the race. Fuentes’ work experience includes being the director of policy and youth advocacy for the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Humboldt Park as well as the co-chair of the Puerto Rican Agenda of Chicago group.

On her website, Fuentes says her “lived experience overcoming poverty, violence and generational trauma, coupled with her professional accomplishments,” make her best suited to lead the ward. Fuentes is endorsed by United Working Families.

Attorney Larry Lloyd owns a legal practice with his wife called The Lloyd Law Firm LLC, which has offices in Illinois and Wisconsin. Lloyd lives in Washington Heights with his wife and children.

Preston Brown Jr. is a private practice attorney accredited with the Veterans Administration and the elected Democratic Committeeman of the 34th Ward. Before redistricting, Brown ran for alderman in what was then the 34th Ward in 2019. According to his campaign website, Brown also serves on the Local School Council at Percy L. Julian High School.