DOWNTOWN — Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wouldn’t say definitively on Monday whether or not or not he plans to run for mayor once more in 2027 — though he did pledge to again Gov. JB Pritzker if he chooses to run for a 3rd time period subsequent yr.
The feedback, which Emanuel made Monday afternoon in entrance of the Financial Membership of Chicago, come as the previous mayor and Illinois congressman has confronted widespread hypothesis about his political future following a three-year stint as U.S. Ambassador to Japan below former President Joe Biden.
Throughout Monday’s occasion, moderated by Chicago Tribune editorial web page editor Chris Jones, Emanuel weighed in on President Donald Trump’s fractious Oval Workplace assembly final week with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Hamas-Israel warfare and the state of the Democratic Social gathering.
Emanuel additionally doubled down on essential feedback he made Friday on HBO’s Actual Time with Invoice Maher about Democrats’ deal with transgender rights moderately than what he known as “kitchen desk” points like training and the financial system.
After praising Emanuel for his “phenomenal abilities and mind and political expertise,” Jones finally turned the dialog to native politics — together with the 2027 mayoral election.
Requested if he’ll search a 3rd time period working the town and problem incumbent Mayor Brandon Johnson, Emanuel didn’t reply instantly — however he did repeatedly say his residence was in Chicago and that he doesn’t have plans to go elsewhere.
“I’ve mentioned it earlier than and I’m going to say it once more. I’m not finished with public service and I hope public service just isn’t finished with me,” Emanuel mentioned. “I do know it’s laborious so that you can imagine, or it’s laborious for me to imagine. I’ve been again 5 weeks, so I need to take a while to consider what I’m going to do.”
“So it’s not a no,” Jones mentioned.
“Effectively it’s not a sure, both,” Emanuel shot again.
Requested concerning the 2026 Illinois gubernatorial election, nevertheless, Emanuel mentioned he’ll again Pritzker if he chooses to run for a 3rd time period. Pritzker has not but introduced his reelection plans.
“I feel JB’s been an important governor. If he seeks reelection I’m going to again him up one hundred pc,” Emanuel mentioned on Monday.
Emanuel was Chicago’s mayor from 2011-2019, following two years as former President Barack Obama’s chief of employees and three phrases representing Illinois’s Fifth Congressional District.
He introduced in September 2018 he wouldn’t run for reelection to a 3rd time period as mayor, a call that got here as he confronted elevated criticism from quite a few corners and factions of Chicago, particularly over his dealing with of the 2014 police capturing of Laquan McDonald — video of which his administration tried to dam from changing into public.
Emanuel confronted protests after he was nominated by Biden for the ambassadorship to Japan, however he was simply confirmed by the Senate in December 2021.
A prodigious fundraiser and frequent media commentator, Emanuel has lengthy been embraced by average Democrats, particularly as he’s supplied frequent autopsy evaluation of the Democratic defeat in November.
Throughout Emanuel’s Friday look on Maher’s discuss present, that included calling out Democratic speaking factors on transgender points and gender-neutral bogs and locker rooms.
“We’ve gone by 5 years the place folks grew to become method too permissive of a tradition, which is why every thing is locked up at Walgreens and CVS, and that may be a catastrophe,” Emanuel mentioned. “And I’ll say this about our faculties. I don’t need to hear one other phrase concerning the locker room. I don’t need to hear one other phrase concerning the rest room. You higher begin specializing in the classroom.”
“In seventh grade, if I had identified I might’ve mentioned the phrase ‘they’ and gotten into the women rest room, I’d’ve finished it,” he added. “We’re a superpower, we’re dealing with off in opposition to China with 1.4 billion folks, and two-thirds of our youngsters can’t learn eighth grade degree.”
Emanuel on Monday largely reiterated these feedback, and mentioned Democrats are taking the “purple meat” thrown to them by Trump and different Republicans who need to distract voters by specializing in tradition warfare points.
He did make passing reference to his choice in 2016 to ban non-essential journey by metropolis employees to North Carolina in response to the state’s regulation requiring folks to make use of public bogs and locker rooms matching the gender on their start certificates.
“I get it. That little one, it’s an enormous subject for the kid, it’s an enormous subject for the household, and we as a society must be welcoming. However it isn’t extra vital, and doesn’t trump, a technology who can’t learn,” he mentioned. “It’s a worth, it’s an vital worth. A technology that may’t learn is a crucial worth.”
No candidate has formally introduced a marketing campaign for the 2027 Chicago mayoral election, though there’s widespread hypothesis that some standing Illinois politicians could also be contemplating a run.
Johnson, who was elected in 2023 after defeating former Chicago Public Faculties chief Paul Vallas in a runoff, has repeatedly mentioned he plans to be mayor for many years to return — feedback that someday appear tongue in cheek, whereas different instances extra severe.
“I’m wanting ahead to the following 23 budgets that I’m going to cross,” Johnson mentioned after his first metropolis funds was authorized by Metropolis Council in November 2023.
Johnson additionally made related feedback throughout an interview with Block Membership in April 2024.
“Every part that I assigned, that the folks of Chicago bought an opportunity to vote on, all of these guarantees have been stored. And there’s nonetheless extra work to be finished,” Johnson mentioned. “And I’m wanting ahead to the following three years or the following 23 years in workplace.”
The incumbent mayor, nevertheless, has confronted widespread pushback and low approval rankings as he’s struggled to push ahead key items of the agenda on which he campaigned. Simply final week, Johnson was compelled to interrupt a 25-25 tie vote within the Metropolis Council that sought to delay approval of a controversial bond plan backed by the mayor’s administration.
Emanuel didn’t point out Johnson by identify throughout his Monday occasion. However requested how the town goes normally, the previous mayor mentioned that “we now have our work lower out for us.”
“Now we have nice strengths, and we’ve bought to maintain constructing on these strengths to remain a worldwide metropolis,” he mentioned.
Take heed to the Block Membership Chicago podcast:
