Matthew J. O'Shea is the

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

of the 19th ward of

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

, serving since 2011.

Early life and education, and career

O'Shea is a lifelong resident of the 19th ward. O'Shea attended Christ the King elementary school and Mount Carmel High School. He received a degree from

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, (SMUMN) is a private Catholic university with an undergraduate residential college in Winona, Minnesota; graduate and professional programs in Winona, the Twin Cities, and Rochester; and various course del ...

. In his career, O'Shea worked as a social worker, and later became the director of a community center. He also served as an aide to his 19th ward aldermanic predecessor Virginia Rugai. O'Shea has sat on several boards in the Beverly neighborhood, and has been a volunteer and board member for the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

Chicago.

Aldermanic career

O'Shea was first elected alderman in 2011. He has been reelected in 2015 and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. He was supportive of

Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...

as Mayor of Chicago, and has claimed to have made safety a top priority for his ward. Among the committees O'Shea has served on are Aviation, Budget and Government Operations, Committees and Rules, Economic, Capital and Technology Development, Education and Child Development, Finance, Health and Human Relations, License and Consumer Protection, Health and Human Relations, Public Safety, Transportation and Public Way and the joint committees on Committees and Rules/Finance, Health and Human Relations/Workforce Development, Public Safety/ Education, as well as the Special Legislative Committee on the Census. In June 2018, mayor

appointed O'Shea as the chairman of city aviation committee. He also has served as the vice chair of the Committee on Committees and Rules and the Joint Committee on Committees and Rules/ Finance. In the

2019 Chicago mayoral election The 2019 Chicago mayoral election was the 2019 edition of the quadrennial elections held to determine the Mayor of the City of Chicago, Illinois. The election was held on February 26, 2019. Since no candidate received a majority of votes, a run ...

, O'Shea endorsed Jerry Joyce in the first round of the election and endorsed

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 ...

in the runoff. His endorsement of Lightfoot has been credited with securing her strong support in his ward in the runoff vote.

References

External links

1969 births 21st-century American politicians Chicago City Council members Illinois Democrats Living people Saint Mary's University of Minnesota alumni {{chicago-stub