Elected: 2007

Twitter: @ILforDowell

Campaign Site: https://www.illinoisfordowell.com

Bio: Pat Dowell has a long history in Chicago politics, first as a student volunteer for Dorothy Tillman, who she would later face in an election, and later as a Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood Planning through the administrations of mayors Eugene Sawyer and Richard M. Daley. Tillman made way for Dowell’s win in the 2007 election when she voted against Labor on the ordinance that raised the minimum wage for big-box stores in Chicago. Labor then decided it could no longer support Tillman, and threw its money and endorsements behind Dowell. She defeated Tillman in a run-off election and has been serving in the City Council ever since. Dowell has maintained her vehemence in planning and development, as she helped launch the Parade of Houses project to construct market-rate single-family homes on vacant lots throughout the 3rd Ward. Though Dowell has been a close ally of Lightfoot, she hasn’t been shy to criticize the mayor. She hesitantly supported Lightfoot’s “Connected Communities Ordinance,” which proposes developments in the city’s transit hubs, and called the ordinance “nothing if we aren’t going to put some meat on the bones.”

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