Every ward answers one question: who does your alderman work for, the neighbors or the machine? For 23 years the answer here was the machine. In 2019 the ward took itself back, and it has not been for sale since. On February 23, 2027, we answer again.
For 23 years the 25th Ward belonged to Danny Solis and the machine behind him. Zoning, permits, and favors all ran through one office. It ended with the alderman disgraced and a federal investigation working its way through City Hall.
When the city moved to close 130 public schools, Byron organized with parents and teachers to keep them open. He went on to lead the Pilsen Alliance, fighting displacement and corruption block by block, years before he ran for anything.
"I do not build coalitions with politicians. I build coalition with my constituents."
A machine ward runs on other people's checks. Developers and corporate PACs pay for the campaign, and then the votes follow the money instead of the block.
Byron pledged in his first run to refuse contributions from developers and big corporations, and he has kept that pledge through every campaign since. This one is powered by small-dollar donations from teachers, nurses, union members, and working families.
"It takes people and people defeats money."
Chip in $27In 2018 Danny Solis rezoned the largest vacant lot in Pilsen from residential to industrial, and the developer pushed for 500 market-rate apartments on it. That is how zoning worked here: one alderman, one closed door, and the block finds out when the permits are pulled.
City Hall also floated landmarking roughly 900 Pilsen homes and buildings, a repair bill long-time owners could not carry.
Byron fought the luxury plan as a Pilsen Alliance organizer and blocked it again in 2019 as alderman. The city bought the 6.3-acre lot for $12 million in 2022. In April 2026 Casa Nayarit was selected for it: 76 permanently affordable homes and a ground-floor child care center at 900 W. 18th St, phase one of 432 units, reviewed by the ward's resident zoning advisory board before it moved.
Down the street, Casa Yucatán finishes this fall at 1609 W. 21st Place: 98 affordable apartments. Over 800 affordable units created or preserved since 2019, hundreds of neighbors stopped the landmark plan, and homeowners won real protection from predatory developers.
"El pueblo unido jamás será vencido."
Danny Solis spent $220,000 from his campaign fund on criminal defense lawyers during the federal probe at City Hall. Donors gave to a ward. The money went to his lawyers.
Byron challenged it and took Danny Solis all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court. In March 2022 the court condemned public corruption in strong terms and still ruled against him: the election code does not ban the practice, and only the legislature can change that. Nobody else in Chicago even tried.
"If the law allows corrupt politicians to use campaign funds for legal defense fees, then it's time to change the law."
In the 2023 ward race the business-backed Get Stuff Done PAC dropped just under $160,000 into ads and mailers against Byron and for his challenger. Nearly 20 percent of the more than $618,000 the PAC spent citywide went to beating one alderman. Its funders included a financier who has long backed and advised Rahm Emanuel. The numbers are Crain's and WTTW's, not ours.
The answer was doors, Ward Night, and four years of neighbors who knew the office was theirs. Even the Chicago Tribune endorsed him, calling his first term admirable, and Gazette Chicago named him the best alderman in the City of Chicago. The ward re-elected him.
"He's the real deal." Girl, I Guess Progressive Voter Guide, 2023.
In 2026 the machine handed a Congressional seat to a former chief of staff in the final hours before the deadline, and Byron ran as an independent. She needed 697 signatures. The law demanded 10,816 of him. The movement filed 22,788.
Their lawyers challenged the petitions line by line, and in July 2026 the State Officers Electoral Board voted unanimously to strike him from the November ballot, 1,222 short.
Byron sued the Illinois State Board of Elections in federal court. His attorneys told him reinstatement was unlikely. He filed anyway, for whoever runs next.
Then he came home. Byron is running for a third term as Alderman of the 25th Ward, the ward the machine lost in 2019 and has never taken back. Round one went to their lawyers. Round two is February 23, 2027, where objections do not count and voters do.
"This is being done so our community never again has to accept an appointed candidate."
The 25th Ward belongs to Danny Solis and the machine behind him. Zoning, permits, and favors run through one office, and it ends with the alderman disgraced and a federal investigation at City Hall.
The city moves to close 130 public schools. Byron organizes with parents and teachers to keep them open, then leads the Pilsen Alliance against displacement and corruption.
Byron runs for alderman against Danny Solis and finishes second. He makes a pledge that outlasts the race: no money from developers or big corporations.
A grassroots campaign wins the 25th Ward, the machine's oldest prize. Ward Night starts every Tuesday, and the doors of the ward office open to everyone.
800+ affordable units created or preserved. Zoning opened to residents through the Zoning Advisory Board. $1M+ in state infrastructure for Benito Juarez and ward schools. $500,000+ for violence prevention.
The business-backed Get Stuff Done PAC drops just under $160,000 into the ward against Byron, nearly a fifth of the more than $618,000 it spends citywide. The ward sends Byron back.
Byron runs for Congress as an independent after the seat is handed to a former chief of staff. She needs 697 signatures. The law demands 10,816 of him. The movement files 22,788, and in July an electoral board strikes him from the November ballot, 1,222 short. He sues in federal court.
August 18: the movement packs Indígó MRKTŌ in Pilsen to launch the re-election campaign. Byron runs for a third term as Alderman of the 25th Ward, and petition season starts this fall.
Knock Doors With UsNot the machine. Not their lawyers. The ward decides who its alderman answers to. You decide. Until then, we knock doors.
"Democracy cannot be preserved nationally if it is subverted locally."
A machine ward is not held by good work. It is held by four habits, and the 25th Ward lived under all of them.
Campaign accounts filled by developers and corporate PACs, so the votes at City Hall answer to the people who wrote the checks instead of the people on the block.
One alderman deciding what gets built, behind a closed door, with neighbors told after the permits are already pulled.
Danny Solis spent $220,000 from his campaign fund on criminal defense lawyers during the federal probe at City Hall. Byron took it all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, which condemned the corruption and ruled that only the legislature can ban the practice.
And when the votes are not there, the lawyers are. This summer their objections kept Byron's name off a congressional ballot. A ward is a different story: here they have to beat him in front of the neighbors.
Byron Sigcho-Lopez is an ideologically committed democratic socialist and a firebrand who has spent his entire career fighting for the multiracial working class. He is not a politician looking for a promotion. He is a teacher and organizer who was called to serve by his community, and in his own words, it has never been about me. It has always been about we.
Unlike establishment politicians, Byron completely rejects corporate PAC money and contributions from real estate developers. His campaign is powered entirely by thousands of small-dollar grassroots donations from teachers, nurses, union members, and working families. He has upheld this commitment since his first campaign in 2015 and has never wavered.
Byron's unique power comes from bottom-up organizing. As 25th Ward Alderperson, he passed anti-displacement legislation to protect homeowners from predatory developers, created over 800 units of affordable housing, stood uncompromisingly with the Chicago Teachers Union, doubled the Affordable Requirements Ordinance minimum, and joined a hunger strike to fight environmental racism. These are not campaign promises. These are receipts.
"I have never taken a dollar from a corporation or a developer. I never will. My loyalty is to the people of this district, not to the machine."
He will look out for you. He will not sell you out. His door is always open.
He does not just talk the talk. He embodies the struggle of his community and the promise of what it can be.
People before party. It will always be like that, and he is the man.