Toni Preckwinkle

The northern part of the ward (North of 45th Street) is predominantly African American, while the more racially diverse southern half is predominantly middle and upper middle-class.

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 graduated from Washington High School in St. Paul in 1965.

During high school, she worked on the campaign of Katie McWatt, who was the first African American person to run for St. Paul City Council.

She moved to Chicago to study at the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park community area, where she earned her bachelor's in 1969, and later a master's degree in 1977.

After college, Preckwinkle taught history for ten years in several high schools in the Chicago metropolitan area, including Calumet High School, the Visitation School, and Aquinas.

In her first two aldermanic campaigns for the 4th ward, in 1983 and 1987, Preckwinkle lost to the incumbent, Timothy C. Evans, who had been in office since 1973.

Evans was Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's City Council floor leader and lieutenant.

In 1983, Preckwinkle, supported by many independent voters, received enough support in the preliminary election to force a runoff election.

(Chicago Aldermen are elected without regard to political party affiliation, but must earn a majority of votes or the top two candidates have a runoff election. ) In the runoff, Preckwinkle carried traditionally "independent" precincts in Hyde-Park, but Evans carried the precincts in the north of the Ward.

Evans and Preckwinkle again advanced to a runoff election, as they had in 1983.

This time the majority of the eliminated candidates endorsed Preckwinkle.

In 1985 and 1986, Preckwinkle served as President of the Disabled Adult Residential Enterprises (DARE).

She was active in community organizations, serving as a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, and Political Action Director of the Near South Chapter of the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI-IPO).

During and after her 1987 aldermanic election campaign, she worked as a planner for the Chicago Department of Economic Development.

In the 1987 elections, Evans defeated Preckwinkle by a 77% to 21% margin.

In 1987, although both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times endorsed Evans, they praised Preckwinkle for qualities including her intelligence and independence, and expressed hopes she would continue in politics.

Preckwinkle was endorsed by then state Rep. Carol Moseley Braun and also by the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization.

Mayor Harold Washington endorsed Evans.

By 1990, she was working as executive director of the Chicago Jobs Council, and become allied with civil rights attorney R. Eugene Pincham.

Chicago's fourth ward is on the South Side of Chicago, adjacent to the Lake Michigan lakefront.

It includes all of the Kenwood and Oakland community areas, and portions of Hyde Park, Washington Park, Grand Boulevard, Douglas and the South Loop community areas.

In 1991, Preckwinkle and four others challenged Evans for the 4th ward alderman's position.

In the first round of voting on February 26, 1991, she won nearly one-third popular vote in the ward by winning 20 of 58 precincts (all in the Hyde Park-Kenwood community).

On April 2, 1991, Preckwinkle performed better in the northern part of the ward and was elected by a 109-vote margin, defeating the 17-year incumbent alderman Evans.

Preckwinkle was initially sworn into office in 1991, and was reelected to four-year terms in 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007.

In City Council, Preckwinkle developed a reputation for progressiveness.

She was known as being independent of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, with whom she dissented more often than did any other alderman.

In addition, Preckwinkle was one of the few aldermen on the City Council occasionally critical of the policies of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

The municipal ordinances she sponsored in 1993 and 1999 for affordable housing increased city expenditures on low and moderate income housing by 50 percent.

In 2004, she and Dorothy Tillman were the only aldermen to vote against the mayor's city budget, and in 2005, Preckwinkle was the lone dissenter on the mayor's budget.

In 2007, she pushed for increases in the existing Affordable Requirements Ordinance.

She was elected to her first term as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the executive branch of Cook County government, in November 2010, becoming the first woman elected to that position.

Preckwinkle previously served as a five-term alderman in the Chicago City Council, representing Chicago's 4th ward centered in Hyde Park.

During her tenure, she emerged as the council's prominent defender of affordable housing.

Preckwinkle has supported the majority of legislation advanced by the mayor and his allies, including most of Daley's annual budget proposals; his controversial use of tax increment financing, an economic development program in which tax revenues are funneled into accounts controlled almost exclusively by the mayor; and, ultimately, his quest to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Preckwinkle championed set-asides for affordable housing as her signature issue.

She was also the runner-up in the 2019 election for mayor of Chicago.

Among other issues, she is known for championing the controversial sweetened beverage tax, sponsorship of living wage ordinances, concerns about the costs and benefits of the city's Olympic bid, and her strong stance against police brutality and excessive force.

Toni Lynn Reed was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended local schools there.