Michelle A. Harris (born December 13, 1961) is an American politician who is the alderman of

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

's 8th ward and the chair of the

Chicago City Council The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The council is gaveled into session regularly, usually mont ...

's rules committee.

Early life and education

Harris was raised on the south side of Chicago where she attended Chicago Vocational High School and

Chicago State University Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of t ...

Aldermanic career

Harris began her aldermanic career in 2006. She was appointed by mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

to fill the vacancy left after Todd Stroger retired to become President of the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

. On December 13, 2006, Michelle Harris was confirmed as Alderwoman by the

and sworn in. Harris has subsequently been reelected in 2007, 2011,

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, 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 ...

. In 2014, she had expressed support for a proposed

marijuana dispensary A cannabis shop, cannabis dispensary, or cannabis cooperative, is a location at which cannabis is sold for Cannabis (drug), recreational or Medical cannabis, medical use. In the Netherlands these are called Coffeeshop (Netherlands), coffeeshops. ...

on 87th street and by 2015 had changed her opinion on the issue. Also in 2014, she was investigated by the Illinois Attorney General for violating Illinois' Open Meetings Act for failure to give adequate notice that two referendums were to be on a public meetings agenda. In 2015 she "demanded" along with 14 other

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

aldermen, that Mayor

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 ...

fire Police Superintendent

Garry McCarthy Garry Francis McCarthy (born May 4, 1959) is the interim Chief of Police in Willow Springs, Illinois and previous Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. He was a candidate for Mayor of Chicago in the 2019 Chicago mayoral election. Ear ...

due to inefficacy in combating murders in her ward. In an article titled "The Big Spenders—and What They Charged", ''

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

'' magazine lists out the most egregious examples of luxurious spending of campaign contributions by Illinois politicians. Harris, for example, is cited for used her campaign account in the amount of $3,849 for airfare to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in 2012. In the runoff of 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 ...

, Harris endorsed

Toni Preckwinkle Toni Lynn Preckwinkle (née Reed; born March 17, 1947) is an American politician and the current County Board President in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was first elected as President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the e ...

against her opponent

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 ...

. However, Harris has since served as Mayor Lightfoot's

floor leader In politics, floor leaders, also known as a caucus leader, are leaders of their respective political party in a body of a legislature. Philippines In the Philippines each body of the bicameral Congress has a majority floor leader and a minor ...

during her mayoralty, being a City Council ally of Lightfoot.

2016 clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County campaign

In 2016, Harris challenged incumbent Dorothy A. Brown in the Democratic primary for Clerk of the

Circuit Court of Cook County The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois as well as one of the largest unified court systems in the United States — second only in size to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County since that court ...

. Harris lost the primary, receiving 307,392 votes (30.53%) to Brown's 477,503 (47.43%), with the remaining 221,921 votes (22.04%) going to Jacob Meister.

Electoral history

References

External links

Aldermanic website
1961 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians African-American city council members in Illinois African-American women in politics Chicago City Council members Chicago City Council members appointed by Richard M. Daley Illinois Democrats Living people Women city councillors in Illinois {{Illinois-politician-stub