page_title: Jesús "Chuy" García
section_title: Illinois Senate
hierarchical_section_title: Jesús "Chuy" García / Early political career / Illinois Senate
caption_attribution_description: IMG_5655
context_page_description: Jesús G. "Chuy" García is a Mexican-born American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 4th district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Illinois Senate, as well as Chicago City Council before his election to Congress. A candidate for mayor of Chicago in the 2015 election, García finished second in the February 24 general election and forced a head-to-head runoff against the incumbent, Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel won the April 7 runoff.
  García was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1986, and in 1992 became the first Mexican-American member of the Illinois Senate. In 2010, García won election to the 7th district of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, and after his election was appointed floor leader by Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle. He won a seat in the U.S. House in the 2018 election, replacing retiring Representative Luis Gutiérrez.
context_section_description: Democratic State Senator Howard W. "Howie" Carroll of the 1st District of the Illinois Senate was redistricted to the 8th District, and in 1992 García ran for the Illinois Senate in the 1st district, winning the open-seat Democratic primary with 8,604 votes (52.06%) to Donald C. Smith's 6,159 (37.26%) and Gilbert G. Jimenez's 1,765 (10.68%). The primary was tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic 1st District and in the general election, and García defeated Republican nominee Esequiel "Zeke" Iracheta by 21,314 votes (81.74%) to 4,762 (18.26%). García was the first Illinois State Senator of Mexican descent. García resigned from the City Council and was succeeded by his protégé Ricardo Muñoz.
  In the 1996 Democratic primary, he was challenged by Alderman Juan Soliz of the 25th Ward. Soliz, who had also been elected in the March 1986 special elections, had been supported by Vrdolyak, earning him the ire of Chicago Hispanics. When Soliz was elected, he called for unity among Hispanic aldermen, a plea which they ignored. Soliz and García even celebrated their inaugurations by hiring separate Mariachi bands to play outside the council chambers. After Soliz was replaced as Chairman of the Aviation Committee by García, he derided it as a "racist move," though they were both Mexican-Americans. García defeated Soliz by 6,839 votes (59.34%) to 4,686 (40.66%). García was re-elected unopposed in the general election. In office, García helped shepherd "immigrant-friendly" health care and education reforms through the legislature. García was defeated in the 1998 Democratic primary election by Antonio Munoz, who was backed by the Hispanic Democratic Organization, Mayor Richard M. Daley's campaign group and political machine. Munoz defeated García by 6,924 votes (53.72%) to 5,964 (46.28%). Alderman Ricardo Muñoz (no relation to Antonio Munoz), talking in 2010 about his mentor's defeat, said: "Part of the rationale that I think Chuy lost in '98 was that we got sloppy and they [Munoz and the HDO] got lucky. It rained all day, and we didn't have raincoats for our guys until 11 o'clock. By that time, they were frozen stiff. So we lost the field game."
caption: García at a Bernie Sanders rally in Los Angeles, California, May 2016
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 20D", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:24 00:08:39", "Image Artist": "unknown", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "796", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15997", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:05:23 12:03:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:05:23 12:03:40", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "126797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "163", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "31750/11", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2704000/937", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "unknown", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "520321582", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[55, 250, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "55.0-250.0 mm"}