Chuy Garcia chats about dropping reelection bid, career

You likely already know that U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Chicago, dropped out of his reelection race in a way that essentially handed his seat to his top aide.

Garcia said his doctor advised him not to run again because of his heart condition, as did his his spouse, who has multiple sclerosis that didn’t respond to her most recent treatment. And he and had his wife had just adopted a grandchild after the death of his daughter. Amid all that, Garcia said he decided the Friday before the Monday petition filing deadline to drop out. And he decided the same day to back his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, to replace him on the ballot.

The literally last-minute petition filing meant that people who would’ve run if Garcia had announced his intent earlier were shut out of the race.

Some people don’t buy Garcia’s story, saying they heard the day he announced that rumors were circulating a few weeks before about how Garcia might not run again. But those rumors, mostly secondhand, have circulated quite often since his 2023 mayoral loss.

When I told Garcia that some felt cheated by his decision, the incumbent said that while he respects their views, he followed all the rules. And he did do that.

I was also interested in knowing how he managed to keep this handoff a secret. Garcia said his organization collected 2,500 signatures for Patty Garcia (no relation) over the weekend, so he said he was also surprised that nobody figured it out before he dropped the bombshell late Monday afternoon.

“I kept looking at my phone every little while [during the weekend], because I expected calls from mayors, trustees, political operatives, or just some of our super voters to see if everything was OK, or if Patty Garcia had gone rogue or something, or we had had a falling-out.”

But he said, “Not one call.”

Chuy is one of the longest-serving politicians in Chicago (he was first elected to the City Council in 1986), but word didn’t get out. That’s quite something.

Garcia and I also talked about the history of Latino political success on the Southwest Side and in the suburbs and his role in it. He said he recognized early on that the demographics were starting to change in that part of the city many years ago.

“We were following that, we were waiting for the ripening of the conditions,” he said.

Garcia said they would constantly probe the machine over the years for possible openings, and analyzed “the old organizations and how they work,” including then-Speaker Michael Madigan’s operation. But, he said, it was crucial to watch not only demographics, but “especially understanding citizen voting age population and when it was a time to make the move.”

Huge numbers of Latinos were not old enough to vote back in the day, but time eventually solved that impediment. Hence, “the ripening.”

Years ago, I wrote that Madigan had essentially thrown in the towel to Garcia, agreeing to drop his support for white incumbents in city and suburban Latino areas against Garcia’s progressive candidates as long as his own direct sphere of influence, mainly his 13th Ward and the 23rd Ward, were left alone.

“We were able to deal from a position of strength,” Garcia said, “because it was becoming more evident what was happening.”

It wasn’t a one-way street by any means. No progressive House Latinos joined the 19 House Democrats who successfully called for Madigan’s ouster, for example.

I’ve known Garcia since he was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1992. Back then, so few Latinos were in the Senate that they joined the Black Caucus, which Chuy eventually chaired. He lost a primary in 1998 to a machine-backed candidate and was eventually elected to the Cook County Board and then Congress.

One of the things he said he’s most proud of is bringing younger Latinos into politics, and, in the last several years, helping women get elected.

“We’ve, over the past 10 years, redeemed ourselves by empowering more women, because that was one of the biggest shortcomings. That’s the case for women generally, but certainly we’ve tried to intentionally correct that, and I feel really good about that,” Garcia said.

And the latest recruit is his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, whether some people like it or not. Chuy studied the machine well.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.