The man who chaired the Chicago Housing Authority board until Mayor Brandon Johnson demoted him announced on Thursday his campaign for Johnson’s seat.
Matthew Brewer, previously the CHA’s interim CEO and board chair, declared his candidacy in the 2027 mayoral race, the latest addition to a widening pool of contenders.
In an interview with the Tribune on Thursday morning, he highlighted his South Side roots and Chicago government experience — including his recent heated spat with Johnson over the direction of the nation’s third-largest public housing agency.
But he isn’t running “a spite campaign” or “doing this to spoil the race,” Brewer said. Instead, he hopes to make a case that Chicago can grow its economy and while simultaneously serving disinvested neighborhoods like the one he grew up in, Grand Crossing, he said.
“I think it’s a false choice that we have to choose between investing in downtown and business or investing in our communities. I think the answer is both. … The more growth we have, the more that we can invest,” he said. “I’m jumping in the race to help move Chicago forward with that, without leaving people behind.”
In a two-minute ad announcing his candidacy, Brewer highlights a news clip of Johnson this spring attempting to strip away Brewer’s authority as operating chair within the CHA, only for Brewer to retort in a statement that “he’s not going anywhere.”
“That’s right,” Brewer then adds while facing the camera. “I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I’m running for mayor, because for too long we’ve been presented with a false choice about Chicago’s future. We can invest in our people without sacrificing our competitive edge.”
Brewer grew up in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, a fact he highlights in his video by pointing out 75th Street and King Drive, the intersection where he caught a CTA bus to school every morning.
He is also a partner at Bartlit Beck LLP; founder of the Grasshopper Club, the city’s first Black-owned weed dispensary; and co-owner of Wiener’s Circle, the Lincoln Park hot dog joint known for its foul-mouthed waiters and signs.
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Johnson has not yet officially declared his reelection bid. But Brewer’s entry in the race could present a challenge for the incumbent’s efforts to shore up his Black voter base, as would the potential candidacy of another prominent figure in the Black community, Willie Wilson.
Wilson, the businessman who has run for the seat unsuccessfully three times, has not officially declared but did loan his campaign $50,000 earlier this month.
Johnson on Thursday declined to discuss Brewer getting into the race, saying his “priority is building safe and affordable communities.”
Brewer has served on the CHA board since 2013, originally as an appointee of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He was elevated to board chair, then interim CEO, under Johnson during a long-standing vacancy in the top executive spot that ultimately led to Brewer and Johnson’s public falling out.
The previous CEO, Tracey Scott, left the agency in November 2024, and Johnson last summer made clear his intentions to appoint his ally former Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. to the role as he retired from the City Council.
But Brewer blocked his efforts, arguing that Burnett lacked experience and that Johnson was interfering with a longstanding search process. Those tensions came to a head in March, when the CHA board voted in a different CEO candidate, Keith Pettigrew, over Johnson’s objections.
The mayor, for his part, has argued Pettigrew is an illegitimate CEO and that the CHA board’s vote was improper, but he was not able to stop the new executive from starting his job in April. However, Johnson did demote Brewer from his board chair role, prompting Brewer to issue a heated statement accusing the mayor of prioritizing “politics and cronies” over the interests of CHA residents. And last month, Brewer stepped down as operating chair but he remains on the CHA board as a commissioner.
“At the CHA, I’ve had a front-row seat to see the dysfunction coming out of City Hall,” Brewer says in his ad.
He ends with the pitch: “We can be a city that’s affordable to live and a great place to do business. … A city of opportunity for everyone. I’m living proof that where a pin drops on a map doesn’t have to determine where you end up.”