Twelve in, for now

A dozen candidates are circulating petitions to run for mayor of Chicago. The field is almost certain to shrink once filing closes and the challenges start.

The signature wall

Each campaign needs 12,500 valid signatures, and smart ones gather at least twice that to survive challenges. Petitions are due Oct. 26.

Johnson is in trouble

The incumbent sits at 30% approval with less than $650,000 in the bank. At 50, he risks becoming Chicago's second straight one-term mayor.

But he can still make a runoff

Johnson holds a solid base in the African-American community and delivered progressive wins like paid leave. Getting to 50%-plus-one is the harder problem.

His coalition split

The progressive unions that built his 2023 win have fractured. CTU stays loyal, but SEIU and its affiliates may go neutral or back Giannoulias.

Giannoulias has the money

Business leaders and building trades handed the 50-year-old secretary of state a $22 million war chest, making him the presumed frontrunner.

And the target on his back

Expect the collapse of Broadway Bank, once owned by his family, to come back. The former pro basketball player also has to prove he has the gravitas for City Hall.

Mendoza is all in

Unlike Giannoulias, who is also running for re-election, the 54-year-old comptroller is giving up her job for a second shot at the fifth floor.

Her 2019 problem

Mendoza finished fifth in 2019 with just over 9% and won only seven of 50 wards. Now she is pitching law and order and fiscal discipline to Northwest and Southwest Side voters.

Quigley wants to risk it

The 67-year-old North Side congressman finally pulled the trigger after flirting with the race for cycles, casting himself as the one candidate with nothing to protect.

“risk the job to save the city”

From Wrigley lights to Congress

Quigley started as an aide to Ald. Bernard Hansen during the fight over lights at Wrigley Field, served on the Cook County Board, then took Rahm Emanuel's seat in Congress.

Kelly knows everyone

A lobbyist for nearly three decades, Kelly, 53, represents the White Sox and the United Center, and co-owns a security company with Sox chair Jerry Reinsdorf.

The insider's pitch

Kelly says taxpayers become his only client on day one, and he would tell old clients no. With $2.2 million banked, he is courting the 22% of Chicagoans who backed Trump in 2024.

“Is this a good deal for the taxpayers? Because they're going to be my client the day I get elected.”

Brewer fought the mayor

The 46-year-old attorney, who co-owns the Wieners Circle, watched City Hall up close during a months-long power struggle with Johnson over the CHA.

“front row seat to the dysfunction”

How that fight ended

HUD refused waivers for Johnson's pick, Walter Burnett Jr. The CHA board hired Keith Pettigrew instead, Johnson tried to remove Brewer, and Brewer stayed. Now he needs money.

Wilson's fourth try

The 78-year-old millionaire won 13 of 18 Black wards in 2019 and still draws older Black voters with food, gas and cash giveaways. His vote share has fallen every run.

Two endorsements he regrets

Wilson backed Lori Lightfoot in the 2019 runoff, then Paul Vallas in 2023. Both calls look bad in hindsight, and he says so bluntly.

“a hell of a mistake”

Cardenas plays long shot

The Board of Review commissioner, 61, is flooding the race with position papers on the $1 billion budget hole and $36 billion pension crisis. He abstained on Daley's parking meter deal.

Pappas is running at one man

The 77-year-old county treasurer, seeking an eighth term at the same time, has told associates she entered to stop Giannoulias, a fellow Greek-American.

“If you want to be mayor of the city of Chicago, your I.Q. has to be higher than your body temperature.”

Three outsiders round it out

Cardiologist Lisa Nee, a VA whistleblower, is leaving medicine. Joe Holberg, 38, built a fintech after sleeping in his car. Danielle Carter-Walters co-founded Chicago Flips Red.