Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (born February 18, 1989) is an

American politician The politics of the United States function within a framework of a constitutional federal republic and presidential system, with three distinct branches that share powers. These are: the U.S. Congress which forms the legislative branch, a bic ...

. He has served as the

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

for

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's 35th Ward since May 18, 2015. He is a member of the Chicago City Council's Progressive Reform Caucus, and was elected to serve as a delegate to the

2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...

as a

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

supporter. He served as an Illinois State Vice-Chair for Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. Elected at the age of 26 to the Chicago City Council in February 2015, he is the city's youngest alderman, and one of the youngest Aldermen ever elected. He is a self-described

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a ...

and a member of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

. He joined the Democratic Socialists of America in March 2017.

Early life, education, and career

Ramirez-Rosa was born on February 18, 1989 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...

and graduated from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, where he was his senior class president. He then attended the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

, where he was an elected member of the Illinois Student Senate. As an elected student senator, he supported funding for women and LGBT student programs, campus green energy policies, and fair treatment of university employees. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 2011. After graduating, he served as a congressional caseworker in the office of Congressman

Luis Gutiérrez Luis Vicente Gutiérrez (born December 10, 1953) is an American politician. He served as the U.S. representative for from 1993 to 2019. From 1986 until his election to Congress, he served as a member of the Chicago City Council representing the ...

. After working for Congressman Gutiérrez, he worked as a family support network organizer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights until he ran for alderman in 2015. On April 8, 2014, Ramirez-Rosa was arrested while attempting to block a deportation bus leaving Broadview Detention Center in

Broadview, Illinois Broadview is a village in Cook County, Illinois, west of downtown Chicago. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 7,998. History Broadview was incorporated as a village in 1914. Government * Mayor: Katrina Thompson * Clerk: Kevin R. Mc ...

. The arrest was part of the
Not One More
campaign to pressure President Barack Obama to stop deportations. Ramirez-Rosa said at the time of his arrest: "I'm a U.S. citizen. I don’t fear deportation, but I know that when you're taking hard-working and decent people, putting them in detention centers and then putting them on buses and separating them from their families, that is an act of injustice." Prior to his election to the Chicago City Council, Ramirez-Rosa also served as an elected community representative to the Avondale-Logandale Local School Council. He is the nephew of Cook County Judge

Ramon Ocasio III Ramon Ocasio III (born 1962) is a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, first elected in 2006 from the 6th Judicial Subcircuit. The 6th Judicial Subcircuit is located in Chicago's north side. Early life A lifelong resident of Chicago, Ocasi ...

. Ramirez-Rosa's mother is of Mexican descent and his father is of Puerto Rican descent.

Chicago City Council

Ramirez-Rosa was first elected the

of the 35th ward on February 24, 2015. He received 67% of the vote, defeating incumbent alderman Rey Colón. He was easily re-elected to a second four-year term on February 28, 2019. He is a member of the Chicago City Council's Progressive Reform Caucus, Latino Caucus, and the LGBT Caucus. He is the youngest current alderman and one of the youngest aldermen in the history of Chicago, and one of the city's first two openly

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

Latino councillors alongside colleague

Raymond Lopez Raymond Anthony Lopez (born May 26, 1978) is an American politician who is currently a member of the Chicago City Council serving as alderman of the 15th Ward in Chicago, Illinois. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Par ...

. After a year as alderman, ''

Crain's Chicago Business ''Crain's Chicago Business'' is a weekly business newspaper in Chicago, IL. It is owned by Detroit-based Crain Communications, a privately held publishing company with more than 30 magazines, including ''Advertising Age'', ''Modern Healthcare'' ...

'' distinguished Ramirez-Rosa as a member of their 2016 "Twenty in their 20s" class. During his tenure, Ramirez-Rosa has championed housing affordability, property tax relief, immigrant rights,

workers' rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...

, environmental protections, police accountability reform, and other progressive and

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

issues.

City budget and property tax rebate

In 2015, Ramirez-Rosa opposed Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s record $589 million property tax increase, arguing that the city should have "emptied out hundreds of millions in TIF funds before raising property taxes and fees on Chicago's working families." Ramirez-Rosa voted no on Mayor Emanuel's 2016 budget proposal and property tax increase. After the property tax increase passed, Ramirez-Rosa proposed a $35 million property tax rebate for struggling homeowners. Ultimately, Ramirez-Rosa joined with Mayor Rahm Emanuel to sponsor and pass a $21 million property tax rebate program. Ramirez-Rosa said of the compromise: "this proposal ensures that the poorest homeowners who see the largest property-tax increase get the maximum rebate." In November 2019, Ramirez-Rosa was one of eleven aldermen to vote against Mayor

Lori Lightfoot Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving since 2019 as the 56th mayor of Chicago. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot worked in private legal practice as ...

's first budget. He joined all five other members of the Socialist Caucus in signing a letter to Lightfoot which criticized her budget for "an over-reliance on property taxes" and "regressive funding models" that are "burdensome to our working-class citizens, while giving the wealthy and large corporations a pass."

Chicago Immigration Policy Working Group

In August 2015, Ramirez-Rosa was a founding member of the Chicago Immigration Policy Working Group. Ramirez-Rosa and the working group successfully pushed the City of Chicago to provide free or low-cost legal assistance to Chicagoans facing deportation, provide support for

DACA Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially referred to as DACA, is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive a ...

applicants, expand language access, and create a municipal ID. In 2021, Ramirez-Rosa and the working group succeeded in removing the carveouts from Chicago's sanctuary city ordinance, ensuring the Chicago Police Department could not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in any case. Ramirez-Rosa co-sponsored the successful measure alongside Mayor Lori Lightfoot. He first introduced the measure to remove the carveouts in 2017.

Affordable housing and development

Ramirez-Rosa has supported the development of a number of

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

projects in his ward. He championed the construction of a 100-unit, all-affordable

transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between ...

to replace a city-owned parking lot next to the Logan Square Blue Line station. In Albany Park, he supported the construction of a 48-unit, all-affordable development called the "Oso Apartments." After a fire destroyed the sole public library in his ward, he supported rebuilding the library on a new site where it would be co-located with affordable housing. In addition to supporting affordable housing, Ramirez-Rosa has advocated for rent control, and other policies to stabilize housing and address

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

. In 2021, he sponsored successful ordinances to establish minimum density requirements, and a

demolition Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...

impact fee for portions of his ward facing high displacement. Ramirez-Rosa argued these ordinances would help preserve naturally-occurring affordable housing. In 2020, Ramirez-Rosa supported the legalization of accessory dwelling units in much of his ward. He has supported

historic preservationist Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

efforts in his district, including the allocation of $250,000 in public landmark funds to help restore Logan Square's

Minnekirken , native_name_lang = , image = Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church, Chicago, Illinois LCCN2011636313.tif , imagesize = , imagelink = , imagealt = , landscape = , ...

. Ramirez-Rosa supported a major overhaul of Milwaukee Avenue and the Logan Square traffic circle to improve pedestrian and traffic safety. In November 2018, He supported the creation of the First Nations Garden on a large city-owned lot in his ward. The First Nations Garden was created by American Indian youth as a place to heal and connect back to nature. The garden was inaugurated with a

land acknowledgement A land acknowledgement or territorial acknowledgement is a formal statement that a public event is taking place on land originally inhabited by indigenous peoples. It is often spoken at the beginning of an event. They have also become popular on s ...

ceremony that included a Chicago City Council resolution passed by Ramirez-Rosa that acknowledged Chicago as an "indigenous landscape."

Participatory democracy

Ramirez-Rosa has consistently expressed his belief in

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected rep ...

as central to his work as a democratic socialist elected official. In 2017, he told

The Nation Magazine ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

: "I’m a big believer that we can build socialism from below. We need to create these opportunities for working people to hold the reins of power and govern themselves." Likewise, in 2017, he told

Jacobin magazine ''Jacobin'' is an American political magazine based in New York. It offers socialist perspectives on politics, economics and culture. As of 2021, the magazine reported a paid print circulation of 75,000 and over 3 million monthly visitors. ...

: "democratic socialism means that the people govern every facet of their lives, whether it be the economic structure or the government that’s determining the policies that impact their lives." In 2019, Ramirez-Rosa explained to writer Micah Uetricht how he seeks to put participatory democracy into action in his elected office: "In the thirty-fifth ward we have what we call 'people-power initiatives.' To date, those are three programs that we run through my office. They seek to show people’s ability to govern themselves and collectively come to together and make decisions. We don’t need the Donald Trumps of the world, the Jeff Bezoses of the world... telling us what our communities should look like or how we should live our lives. We collectively, from the grassroots, from below, can determine our own destiny." The three "people-power initiatives" Ramirez-Rosa supports through his elected office are "community-driven zoning and development" - a local

participatory planning Participatory planning is an urban planning paradigm that emphasizes involving the entire community in the community planning process. Participatory planning emerged in response to the centralized and rationalistic approaches that defined early ...

process,

participatory budgeting Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows ci ...

for the allocation of infrastructure improvement dollars, and a local rapid-response deportation defense network called the "community defense committee." The "community defense committee" distributes immigration know-your-rights cards door-to-door, organizers know-your-rights trainings, and trains ward residents in how to engage in

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

to stop deportations. Ramirez-Rosa has also called himself a "movement elected official," stating his "role is to be an organizer on the inside for those movements that are organizing people-power bases on the outside."

Police reform and No Cop Academy campaign

In 2016, Ramirez-Rosa worked with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression to introduce the Chicago Police Accountability Council ordinance. The ordinance would enact civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department via an all-elected civilian body. Ramirez-Rosa said the ordinance "could be a model for true police accountability reform across the country." In December 2017, Ramirez-Rosa was the sole member of the Chicago City Council to support the No Cop Academy campaign, a grassroots

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

effort to stop the city from spending $95 million on a new police academy building and instead spend that money on education, after school programs, job training, and social services. Ramirez-Rosa would explain his support of the No Cop Academy campaign as follows: "police violence has cost Chicagoans $662 million in settlements since 2004, and CPD is funded to a tune of $4 million per day, $1.5 billion per year. Our nation has witnessed the magnitude of police crimes in the City of Chicago with the murders of

Rekia Boyd Rekia Boyd was a 22-year-old black American woman who was fatally shot in Chicago, Illinois by Dante Servin, an off-duty Hispanic Chicago police detective, on March 21, 2012. Killing Servin, an off-duty police officer, drove his car to Douglass ...

and Laquan McDonald. The Chicago Police Department is not lacking in resources, it is lacking in accountability and oversight. The $95 million that the City is projected to spend on this new cop academy should be invested in jobs, education, youth programs, and mental health services, not a new shooting range and swimming pool for police.” In May 2018, after successfully delaying a vote on the new police academy, Ramirez-Rosa was expelled from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus. Ramirez-Rosa was later readmitted to the Latino Caucus after public outcry. In 2020, in the wake of

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

, Ramirez-Rosa helped dozens of

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protesters recover their bikes which had been confiscated by the Chicago Police.

Pandemic response

In 2020, in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Ramirez-Rosa used his aldermanic office's resources to initiate and support neighborhood mutual aid networks, and to target support to communities most impacted by the pandemic. Ramirez-Rosa's office distributed a bilingual newsletter to 7,000 ward households to provide residents with information on unemployment insurance and resources available to support them during the pandemic. Ramirez-Rosa joined with his socialist colleagues to call for a pandemic response that prioritized "the most vulnerable." He also worked to expand Chicago's emergency rental assistance to undocumented Chicagoans. In December 2020, he helped bring the One Fair Wage High Road Kitchens program to Chicago, which provided grants to restaurants who committed to transition to a full minimum wage with tips on top.

Workers' rights

Ramirez-Rosa has advocated for the raising of Chicago's

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

to a

living wage A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor ...

, and other measures in support of

. He was a sponsor of the successful Fair Workweek ordinance to provide hourly-workers with stability in their work schedules. He also sponsored the ordinance to raise Chicago's minimum wage to $15. Ramirez-Rosa also worked to create a municipal Office of Labor Standards to protect Chicago workers. On October 4, 2018, Ramirez-Rosa was arrested at a

Fight for $15 The Fight for $15 is an American political movement advocating for the minimum wage to be raised to USD$15 per hour. The federal minimum wage was last set at $7.25 per hour in 2009. The movement has involved strikes by child care, home health ...

protest outside

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

global

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

in the

West Loop The Near West Side, one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, is on the West Side, west of the Chicago River and adjacent to the Loop. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started on the Near West Side. Waves of immigration shaped the history of the ...

. He was arrested alongside striking workers as they blocked the entrance to the building in an act of civil disobedience. The McDonald's workers were demanding a $15 wage and a

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. Ramirez-Rosa has spoken at several Fight for $15 demonstrations. In 2017, Ramirez-Rosa sponsored and passed an ordinance to designate

Kedzie Avenue Kedzie Avenue is a major north–south street in Chicago, Illinois. Both Kedzie streets in Chicago and suburban Evanston are named after John H. Kedzie, an early Chicago real-estate developer. Kedzie Avenue extends more than from the southern ...

in his ward as " Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Way," in honor of the late labor organizer and founder of the

IWW The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

union. Parsons lived off Kedzie Avenue at 3130 N. Troy. At an honorary street sign unveiling event held on May 1, 2017,

International Workers' Day International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, ...

, Ramirez-Rosa said: "The conditions Lucy and other workers were facing... are not too different from the conditions we're facing now. Today we honor Lucy Gonzalez Parsons because she taught us the way, she taught us that you don't take it sitting down, you don't live on your knees, you rise up and you fight back."

LGBT rights

In 2016, Ramirez-Rosa sponsored a successful measure to ensure

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

persons had the right to access the public bathroom of their choice. During City Council debate on the ordinance, Ramirez-Rosa said: "We must do everything we can to legislate love and to reject hate... we can legislate love because we can show that as a city, we will not discriminate against our trans-sisters and brothers, that we will allow equality to reign supreme when it comes to access to public accommodations.”

Electoral history

Aldermanic elections

Democratic committeeman

Ramirez-Rosa served as 35th Ward Democratic Committeeman from 2016 to 2020. In 2019, he supported Anthony Joel Quezada to replace him as Democratic Committeeman in the March 2020 primary election.

Campaigns for higher office

Daniel Biss's selected Ramirez-Rosa as his running mate in the

2018 Illinois gubernatorial election The 2018 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the Governor of Illinois, concurrently with the 2018 Illinois general election and other midterm elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner ran for ...

on August 31, 2017. Only six days later Biss dropped him from the ticket after his ally

Brad Schneider Bradley Scott Schneider (born August 20, 1961) is an American businessman and politician who became the U.S. representative for Illinois's 10th congressional district in 2017, previously holding the position from 2013 to 2015. Before he was elec ...

rescinded his endorsement due to Ramirez-Rosa's support of the

BDS Movement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations u ...

. The BDS Movement seeks to impose comprehensive boycotts of Israel until it ends documented human rights violations against the Palestinians. After Luis Gutiérrez announced his retirement from Congress, Ramirez-Rosa announced his candidacy for Gutiérrez's seat,

Illinois's 4th congressional district The 4th congressional district of Illinois includes part of Cook County, and has been represented by Democrat Jesús "Chuy" García since January 2019. In November 2017, incumbent Luis Gutiérrez announced that he would retire from Congress at ...

. Ramirez-Rosa withdrew on January 9, 2018 and endorsed Jesus "Chuy" Garcia that same day, citing his desire to not split the progressive vote in the Democratic primary.

Footnotes

External links

Political Website of Carlos Rosa

DNAinfo Profile of Alderman-Elect Carlos Rosa
* https://web.archive.org/web/20170616123957/http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramirez-Rosa, Carlos 1989 births 21st-century American politicians Chicago City Council members Hispanic and Latino American politicians Gay politicians LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people American LGBT city council members LGBT people from Illinois Living people Democratic Socialists of America politicians from Illinois University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Mexican-American people in Illinois politics Puerto Rican people in Illinois politics Illinois socialists 21st-century LGBT people