Former Chicago Ald. George Cardenas announced Tuesday he will run for mayor, expanding the crowded pool of candidates vying to oust Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The once long-serving Southwest Side alderman who now serves on Cook County’s property tax appeals board told the Tribune the city’s spending must be reined in after shooting up in the last decade. He pointed to an array of cost-cutting ideas to argue he is ready to right the city’s financial ship without slashing its services.
“I’ve done the work, I’ve done the math,” Cardenas said. “I think people want to jump to cutting. It’s managing better, it’s being more efficient.”
Cardenas represented the 12th Ward — which includes McKinley Park, Brighton Park and part of Little Village — for two decades. In office, he was a reliable mayoral ally through the Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot administrations.
He steered the council’s environmental protection committee for over 10 years and served as Lightfoot’s deputy floor leader responsible for whipping votes.
Cardenas resigned from the City Council in November 2022 to take a seat on the Cook County Board of Review, a property tax appeals body. He listed the construction of Back of the Yards High School and Calmeca Academy as key accomplishments in his resignation letter.
Lightfoot appointed Cardenas’ chief of staff, Anabel Abarca, to the vacant council seat. Abarca then lost to current Ald. Julia Ramirez in the next election.
Cardenas himself fended off a primary challenge in his Board of Review reelection bid in March, narrowly securing the Democratic nomination with 52.3% of the vote. That election came with one troubling sign for his mayoral prospects: Cardenas lost among Chicago voters.
He acknowledged that he faces long odds in his quest to beat Johnson and the crowded, growing field of candidates in the February 2027 general election.
“Sometimes when no one gives you a chance, you have to give yourself a chance,” he said. “It is a long shot for sure. This city is unforgiving. But I’m not going to give up.”
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And he isn’t worried about dividing votes, he added.
His entry could be a blow to the campaign of Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, the only other Latino who has entered the race. But Cardenas’ announcement drew little reaction from Johnson when reporters asked him about it at an unrelated Tuesday news conference.
“I’m not the first mayor to have people who wish to have the seat of the mayor, right? So that’s not breaking news,” he said. “I’m going to continue to organize and work with people across this city and this state to pull us in the same direction, and that’s to build the safest, most affordable big city in America.”
Cardenas currently has $139,000 in his state campaign fund, according to state records.
He said he would often cite his upbringing in the city if he took Johnson’s seat. His family — his parents, five brothers, a sister and him — moved from Mexico to Chicago when he was a teen. He got into Lane Tech College Prep High School, then left his South Lawndale home to join the Navy, Cardenas said.
“All I had was my vision and my fortitude to know that I needed to move forward,” he said. “My story is going to connect with every Chicagoan, because that’s what they face on a daily basis.”
Cardenas said his campaign will focus on bringing spending back in line, saying the city could consider better handling police overtime, updating technology systems to improve debt collection, negotiating better software licensing deals and organizing family support services under one organization.
He argued that his background — from his first job out of college as an auditor, to work as a management consultant or more recently handling property taxes on the Board of Review — makes him the best candidate to help Chicago “go back to some of the basic things of running a government.”
“I know, based on my knowledge and experience and skill set, that I can find some nuggets for Chicagoans,” he said.
He pushed back when asked what government programs he would cut to reduce spending, arguing — as many candidates running for office do — that such reductions aren’t needed to save money.
“We don’t have to cut anything, we just have to manage better and not throw stuff away, not throw money away,” he said. “We do have the means, we do have the resources, but we have to connect the dots.”