* Click here for some background. Comptroller Susana Mendoza held a press conference this morning to “announce her plans for the 2026 election.” WTTW…
Comptroller Susana Mendoza announced Wednesday she will not run for reelection as Illinois comptroller as she weighs 2027 bid for Chicago mayor.
Mendoza’s decision not to seek a fourth term as the state’s chief fiscal control officer is likely to set off an intense race for a coveted statewide office and signals the start of the 2027 mayoral election cycle, even though the election is 587 days away.
* In her remarks, Mendoza kept her plans for the future vague…
Mendoza: Well, moving forward, I’m going to figure out what the right move is for our family, for our city, for our state. To find out where I’m needed most, that next biggest challenge that I need to take on. Because no challenge is too big as far as I’m concerned. And when I decide what that is, then you better believe I’ll be all in. Because I’ll be the best person, the right person for the job.
So stay tuned.
* Mendoza was pressed on whether she’ll run for Mayor of Chicago…
Mendoza: I’m definitely leaving the door open. But I am definitely going to take some time to figure out what that next big, huge challenge is for me. I want to go on—I think I’m going to do, like, a thank you tour. A thank you tour and a listening tour, [to] hear directly from people, meet with them—taxpayers, everywhere—whether it’s to their homes or in some cafes or with business leaders. But really pick their brains on what they think they need, and how I, in my role and the experience that I’ve had over 24 years now in public service… where am I gonna have the biggest impact? And once I figure that out, like I said, you know, I’ll be all in for that. I’ll be the person to get the job done.
Still, Mendoza did not shy away from criticizing Johnson’s administration of the city.
“Chicago is in dire need of competency, of someone who understands the needs of the city, and who understands how critical it is to the functioning of the whole state. We’ve had two unsuccessful mayors in a row. Chicago deserves better,” she said.
She described Chicago as the “state’s economic engine,” and that the state of Illinois “can’t be successful when the city of Chicago is failing.”
* NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern has the latest fundraising numbers for potential mayoral candidates…
NEW $$ for several potential Chicago ‘27 Mayor candidates:
If Mendoza were to opt out of running, two other possible Comptroller candidates are ready to seek that job. Party leaders tell NBC 5’s Political Reporter Mary Ann Ahern that Illinois State Rep. Margaret Croke and Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim are interested in running for comptroller, and will attend the Friday slate making event.
…Adding… Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim…
With Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza not seeking re-election, Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim is actively exploring a campaign to succeed her—bringing both executive experience and a bold vision for statewide fiscal leadership.
“Susana Mendoza raised the bar for transparency and accountability, and I intend to build on that legacy,” Kim said. “Illinois needs a Comptroller who knows how to manage public dollars responsibly and who is not afraid to challenge the status quo to get results.”
Holly Kim is currently serving her second term as Lake County Treasurer and is the only prospective candidate with hands-on executive experience managing public funds. Under her leadership, the Treasurer’s office has modernized systems, strengthened transparency, and implemented innovative, community-focused investment strategies.
Kim also serves as Chair of the Asian American Caucus and is a leading voice for equity and inclusion in Illinois politics. Should Kim enter and win the race, she would make history as the first Asian American to hold a constitutional office in the state’s history.
“Representation matters—especially in statewide leadership,” said Kim. “But this is about more than breaking barriers. It’s about putting proven executive experience and a people-first approach at the heart of our state’s financial decisions. I’m ready to do the work.”
Kim will be presenting in front of the Cook County Democratic Party on Friday, July 18th during the Statewide Committee at 9AM at IBEW Hall, 2722 S. King Drive. Kim is expected to announce her decision in the coming weeks.
…Adding… Representative Margaret Croke…
“I want to thank Comptroller Mendoza for her years of service to the state of Illinois, shepherding us through tough fiscal times as an extreme Republican governor held our state budget hostage. As Governor Pritzker and Illinois Democrats worked to shore up our Rainy Day Fund and pay off our bill backlog, Comptroller Mendoza set an example for responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. I’m grateful for her leadership and the strong path she has charted in the Comptroller’s Office. With chaos unfolding at the national level, Illinoisans need steady state leadership and deserve a Comptroller who is prepared to lead with transparency, efficiency, and integrity.”
I’ve been told Croke plans to attend slating and will make a more formal announcement next week.
* WTTW | State Comptroller Susana Mendoza Says She Won’t Run for Reelection, Setting Up 2027 Chicago Mayoral Bid: Mendoza had already launched a bid for a third term as comptroller when Emanuel announced he would not run for reelection in 2019, setting off a massive scramble. Mendoza finished fifth, winning just 9% of the vote, trailing former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley and businessman Willie Wilson in the first round of voting. Mendoza’s campaign was hobbled by her connection to now-convicted former Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward). Burke supported Mendoza’s election as city clerk, and she often referred to his wife, former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, as her “mentor.”
* Fox Chicago | Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza says she won’t seek re-election: Mendoza, 53, made the announcement Wednesday at Los Comales restaurant in Little Village. Mendoza has served as state comptroller since 2016. “I know I leave the comptroller’s office in our state in a much, much better spot and I’m definitely not done serving moving forward,” Mendoza said.
* Add one more to the 9th Congressional District’s growing roster. The Daily Northwestern…
After three different careers in public education, the U.S. Department of Justice and Microsoft, Evanston resident Nick Pyati launched his bid for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District on Wednesday morning, marking him as the latest candidate in a rapidly-expanding primary of more than a dozen Democrats.
The 42-year-old launched his campaign with a YouTube video just over a minute long, in which he called for a “stronger, fairer and freer America,” and said he is “done waiting” for establishment Democrats to “create a plan to win” in the wake of President Donald Trump’s second presidential victory in November 2024.
Pyati’s campaign launch and his filing with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night follow campaign announcements from State Sen. Mike Simmons (7th District) and former FBI agent Phil Andrew last week. […]
Though Pyati said the top concern for Democrats in the district is to “end the Trump era,” he added that he hopes to support progressive initiatives like expanding health care and an energy transition through economic innovation and growth — a topic he says has “totally fallen off the radar” for the party.
In an early weigh-in for those running to represent Evanston and other Illinois communities in Congress, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss recorded the highest fundraising figures among Democratic candidates while falling just shy of having the most cash on hand to outside challenger Kat Abughazaleh. […]
Evanston’s mayor broke away in fundraising this quarter, recording just shy of $703,000 in contributions over the 47 days after he announced his bid on May 15. In a preliminary news release sent July 7, Biss wrote that the “outpouring of grassroots support we’ve seen so far has been truly humbling.”
Out of the $672,539.95 Biss received from itemized contributions, $196,000 came from donors who maxed out at $7,000 across one or more donations, the combined individual limit for a single election cycle between the primary and general.
Evanston residents pitched in $264,505, and another $346,014.95 came from donors elsewhere in Illinois. Several large-dollar supporters carried over from the mayor’s reelection campaign, during which he spent nearly three times as much as challenger Jeff Boarini in the final three months before Election Day on April 1.
As for spending, Biss recorded $57,500.58 in expenses, concentrated in salaries for campaign staff and processing fees for donations received through fundraising platform ActBlue. The low spending leaves him with about $645,474.41 on-hand entering the back half of 2025 — just shy of the race’s continuing leader.
* Kat Abughazaleh raised nearly $526,000 in the second quarter. But she’s lagging behind Biss in in-state support…
Despite being one of the first candidates to announce her bid for Congress in early May, just one day after Schakowsky’s retirement announcement, State Sen. Laura Fine of Glenview appears to have gotten a slower start to fundraising than her top competitors.
Records show the 58-year-old state senator raised about $262,000 in the two months since announcing, far less than Abughazaleh and Biss in the same period, including $14,000 of which came from her and her husband, Michael Fine.
Fine’s slow fundraising start leaves her with about $237,000 in cash, a full $100,000 less than what remains in her own campaign account for state senate. […]
Bushra Amiwala, the Skokie School District 73.5 board member, raised just under $200,000, records show, placing her not far behind Fine in early fundraising.
* Biss also picked up an endorsement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Tribune…
Evanston Mayor and former state legislator Daniel Biss’ progressive credentials got a boost Wednesday with an endorsement from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren in Illinois’ increasingly crowded 9th Congressional District Democratic primary race.
Warren, a three-term senator from Massachusetts and briefly a front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, announced she was backing Biss in a statement shared with the Tribune in which she praised the two-term mayor as “a relentless fighter for working people who can help deliver the structural change our country needs right now.” […]
Biss, who campaigned for Warren in Iowa ahead of the 2020 caucuses alongside Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs and then-Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, in a statement called her “an inspiration to me and so many others as one of the most effective, boldest progressive leaders in our nation.” He said he was “honored to have her backing in this race.” […]
Biss, who just won a second term as mayor in Evanston in April, also has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove and several current and former state lawmakers, including Rep. Kelly Cassidy of Chicago and Rep. Marty Beth Canty and Sen. Mark Walker, both of Arlington Heights, all of whom represent portions of the 9th District.
* Moving on to the 2nd Congressional District. Sun-Times…
Former Illinois U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is exploring a comeback bid to congress in his old south suburban district, as U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly sets her sights on outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat.
The Friends of Jesse Jackson Jr. for Congress 2026 Exploratory Committee filed a statement of organization on Sunday with the Federal Election Commission. Jackson’s bid is another product of a game of political musical chairs that was put in motion when Durbin in April announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.
“As part of the Jesse Jackson Jr. for Congress 2026 Exploratory effort, it is my intention to secure a place on the ballot by authorizing the circulation and collection of 10,000 signatures for nominating petitions, commencing on August 5th, and to register 5,000 new voters in the Second Congressional District,” Jackson said in a statement. […]
Six Democrats are already vying for the 2nd Congressional District, including State Sen. Robert Peters, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Yumeka Brown, businessman Eric France, policy strategist Adal Regis and youth pastor and advocate Jeremy Young. The district stretches from the South Side to the south suburbs and also extends south into portions of central Illinois.
* A quick look at fundraising in the race for Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat, via the Pantagraph’s Brenden Moore…
* Juliana Stratton’s US Senate campaign announced more endorsements this morning…
26 State Representatives from across Illinois are endorsing Juliana Stratton for United States Senate. Following endorsements earlier this week by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and 10 State Senators from across Illinois, these representatives join a growing coalition of Illinoisans who know Juliana’s voice is needed in Washington. […]
The full list of State Representatives endorsing Juliana is below:
Speaker Pro Tempore Kam Buckner, State Representative, 26th District
Representative Mary Beth Canty, State Representative, 54th District
Representative Kelly M. Cassidy, State Representative, 14th District
Representative Terra Costa Howard, State Representative, 42nd District
Representative Michael Crawford, State Representative, 31st District
Representative Margaret Croke, State Representative, 12th District
Representative Daniel Didech, State Representative, 59th District
Representative Kimberly du Buclet, State Representative, 5th District
Assistant Majority Leader Marcus C. Evans, Jr., State Representative, 33rd District
Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, State Representative, 18th District
Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, State Representative, 17th District
Representative Nicolle Grasse, State Representative, 53rd District
Representative Sonya M. Harper, State Representative, 6th District
Representative Barbara Hernandez, State Representative, 50th District
Representative Norma Hernandez, State Representative, 77th District
Representative Tracy Katz Muhl, State Representative, 57th District
Assistant Majority Leader Camille Y. Lilly, State Representative, 78th District
Representative Joyce Mason, State Representative, 61st District
Representative Rita Mayfield, State Representative, 60th District
Representative Anna Moeller, State Representative, 43rd District
Assistant Majority Leader Bob Morgan, State Representative, 58th District
Representative Yolonda Morris, State Representative, 9th District
Representative Justin Slaughter, State Representative, 27th District
Majority Officer and Sergeant at Arms Nicholas K. Smith, State Representative, 34th District
Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, State Representative, 7th District
Assistant Majority Leader Maurice A. West, II, State Representative, 67th District
…Adding… From the Junaid Ahmed campaign…
With the filing deadline now passed, I wanted to update you on Junaid Ahmed’s status in the race for the Democratic nomination for the 8th Congressional District.
In less than a month, Junaid raised nearly $350,000.
Junaid’s campaign is people-powered, with donations coming from the community, not corporate PACs or self-funding.
He’s raised the most money from individual donors this quarter.
Just to recap:
Junaid has already secured the endorsement of progressive powerhouse Congressman Ro Khanna.
He enters the race with considerable name ID thanks to his previous run against a well-funded incumbent, where he secured 30% of the vote.
Had the highest individual donor fundraising this quarter.
* More…
* Evanston Now | Former prosecutor joins congressional race: Pyati called his now-opponents “great progressives” with “very inspiring life stories,” but said he didn’t “see the leadership we need … to actually get us out of this era [of Trump].”
* Evanston Roundtable | Evanstonian Nick Pyati jumps in race to succeed Schakowsky: “Since November, I’ve been extremely disappointed and dismayed by what’s happening in the country as the Trump administration blazes a path through all of our democratic norms and basic freedoms,” Pyati said in an interview with the RoundTable. “I’ve been disappointed in the Democratic Party’s inability to find a vision or a plan forward for ending this mess.”
