Incumbent Naperville City Council members Benny White, Jennifer Bruzan Taylor and Ian Holzhauer say they running for reelection in April 2025.
The trio have confirmed their candidacies for new four-year terms via social media announcements and in interviews this week.
A fourth incumbent, Paul Leong, says he’s “undecided” as to whether he’ll run again.
White, first elected to Naperville City Council in 2017, stated his reelection plans in a post to social media Sunday.
“As a dedicated public servant and passionate advocate for community engagement with nearly two decades of active involvement in our community, I am proud to announce my candidacy for reelection to the Naperville City Council,” he said in his statement.
White, a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army and Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Senior Army instructor at Joliet Township High School, has lived in Naperville since 2005. Prior to serving on council for the past seven years, White has been a member of various local boards and committees and was board secretary for the Indian Prairie District 204 School Board. In 2023, he lost a Naperville mayoral bid to Scott Wehrli.
In his reelection announcement, White said he will “continue to prioritize fostering good governance, enhancing public safety, promoting economic growth and championing environmental sustainability,” as well as maintaining “a strong emphasis on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Taylor likewise took to social media to say she picked up her packet to run for a second council term last week, shortly after the city made petitions for candidacy available on July 30.
“My common sense leadership is more important than ever,” Taylor said in her online announcement. “I humbly ask (for) your support as I run for reelection.”
Taylor has been gearing up for a second run. In early July, she held a kickoff fundraiser for her reelection campaign at Quigley’s Irish Pub in Naperville.
Speaking over the phone Monday, she reiterated that she is “100% committed to running.”
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First elected to council in 2021, Taylor is a Naperville native. Though no longer practicing, she is a lawyer who spent most of her career as a Cook County assistant state’s attorney. She also taught constitutional law at North Central College in Naperville.
“I had set out with a list of priorities,” Taylor said of her first term, “and I’ve worked to accomplish some of those. But I still feel like I have work to do.”
She is seeking reelection for many of the same reasons that pushed her to seek the job a first time. Among them, she wants to support local business, protect public safety, promote smart and reasonable development in the city, and be “a voice of the people,” she said.
Holzhauer has not made a formal reelection announcement but said in a call that he’s picked up a packet to run.
Holzhauer has been a council member since 2021. A graduate of Naperville North High School, Holzhauer is a lawyer who served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 2007 to 2014. He’s now an equity partner at Naperville-based Campbell Holzhauer Concierge Law.
Beyond the incumbents announcing election bids, the tentative field for April’s election is starting to fill out.
The others who have announced plans to run so far include Naperville Park Board President Mary Gibson, Naperville Public Library Board President Ashfaq Syed, Naperville Planning and Zoning Commissioner Meghna Bansal and former Naperville Human Rights and Fair Housing Commissioner Nag Jaiswal.
Gibson announced her plans to run last week. Syed, Bansal and Jaiswal have announced their intentions to run online and reiterated their campaign plans in interviews this week.
Syed, who’s worked as a banker for the past 30 years, unsuccessfully ran for city council in 2023. One of his election goals is to have more of an impact on the community, he said. Syed, who is from Hyderabad, India, added that with his candidacy, he was “thinking about having diversity in the seat.”
“We don’t have any South Asian community members (on the council). … I feel that we need to have our representation, as a South Asian,” he said.
Bansal is hoping to snag a seat on council after missing election by a small margin in 2023 to Nate Wilson. Bansal is a longtime Naperville resident who has worked as a financial analyst for the past 21 years. She said she plans to run again because concerns that drove her to put her name on last’s ballot are still relevant today. Those include public safety and mental health, she said.
Jaiswal is likewise a returning council candidate, and says he plans to pick up a candidate packet soon.
Jaiswal, who announced he’d be running for council in 2025 back in October of last year, has attempted to hold public office a few times in recent years. He unsuccessfully ran for the Naperville Park Board in 2021 and city council in 2023. In January, Jaiswal resigned from Naperville’s Human Rights and Fair Housing Commission after 18 months in the role.