Mayor Lori Lightfoot picks Nicole Lee as new 11th Ward alderman, first Asian American woman to serve on City Council
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot has picked the first Asian American woman to serve on the city Council as the new 11th Ward alderman.
Lightfoot is appointing Nicole Lee, a United Airlines director who was born and raised in Chinatown, to replace former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, who left office last month after his conviction on federal charges.
"The 11th Ward is Chicago," Lee said Thursday afternoon at a press conference in Bridgeport to announce her appointment. "The 11th Ward's earliest residents dug canals. They butchered hogs, and they riveted steel that built this city," Lee says. Emphasizes its historic role as a hub for immigrants."
Lee hailed the 11th Ward as a longtime gateway for immigrants hoping to build a new life in Chicago.
"The 11th Ward values hard work and labor. It's home to people who pave our roads, teach our children, stock our shelves, and patrol our streets," she said.
Lee also made repeated references to the Chicago White Sox, who also call the 11th Ward home.
"In the 11th Ward, we don't stop believing," she said, referring to the Journey hit the 2005 White Sox adopted as a theme song on their way to the World Series title.
"We're grinders, and winning ugly, that's what we believe in," she added, referencing the slogan for the 1983 White Sox.
Lee, director of social impact and community engagement at United Airlines, would also be only the second Asian American to serve on the City Council. The only previous Asian American alderman was Ameya Pawar, who represented the 47th Ward on the North Side for two terms from 2011 to 2019.
Lee has a long record of community service in the city's Asian community, including as a member of the UIC Asian American Advisory Council, a former president of the Chicago chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, a former co-chair and founding member of the Asian Giving Circle, and a former vice president of the Chinese Mutual Aid Association.
"Nicole Lee has spent her life expanding and amplifying 11th ward issues and voices," Lightfoot said in a statement on Lee's appointment. "Her dedication to empowering communities and building coalitions is evident in her career and in her involvement in a variety of community organizations. She is the right choice to make sure 11th ward residents are fully represented on the Chicago City Council."
Lee said she still lives in the same building her grandparents bought, and where her parents still live to this day.
"It's really handy to have your mom cooking for you every night downstairs. And my two sons now represent the fourth generation of Lees to live in this house," she said.
Lee said she was inspired to apply to become the 11th Ward alderman by her father, Gene Lee, who served as deputy chief of staff under former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
"I saw my father serve the public for 30 years, driving the streets, taking the long way home, checking the lights, making sure stuff was picked up, taking calls at all hours of the night. That's what he did, and he was not an elected official, but he was somebody in the ward in our community that people could look to, and that's what I take from his modeling for me every day growing up," she said. "If somebody needed something, he was there to help out."
Lightfoot said Lee's family ties to former Mayor Daley were not an issue in her selection for the 11th Ward seat.
"Nicole is her own person. That's how her parents raised her to be. She stands on her own two feet. She's here. She's going to be the one who gets the calls to fill the potholes, to get the garbage collected, make sure the snow's being shoveled. That's the nuts and bolts of being an alderman, and I have every confidence that, through her life experience, and particularly her experience in living in this ward, that she is ready," Lightfoot said.
In 2014 – three years after Daley had left office – Lee's father pleaded guilty to federal charges accusing him of stealing money donated to a charity. The charges were not connected to his work in the Daley administration, and his daughter had nothing to do with the criminal case.
Lightfoot tried to preempt any questions about Gene Lee's conviction by saying, "I wouldn't have picked Nicole if I didn't believe that she had the bonafides, and the capability of doing this job."
"I hope that, in asking a question, you're not asking her to say anything other than 'I love you dad, I love you mom.' She loves her kids, her brother, and her family. This is about her; her life, her experience, and how she's going to do in leading this ward in this challenging time," she said.
Lee ducked questions about whether she plans to run for election to the 11th Ward seat in 2023.
"My plan is to get confirmed on Monday," she said.
The City Council Rules Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for Lee at 12:30 p.m. on Monday. A special City Council meeting has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Monday for a final vote on Lee's appointment.
Lee has a master's degree in public policy from the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, and a bachelor's degree in public affairs from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
The 11th Ward covers a diverse, skinny sliver of the South Side that includes parts of Chinatown, Bridgeport, Back of the Yards, Canaryville, University Village, and Pilsen – as well as Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the White Sox.
The 11th Ward has been the home base of the Daley political dynasty for decades. Mayor Richard J. Daley lived on Lowe Avenue south of 35th Street and raised his family there – including son Mayor Richard M. Daley. While the younger Daley moved to the South Loop while in office, the dynasty remained in Bridgeport – and Ald. Thompson, the senior Mayor Daley's grandson and the younger Mayor Daley's nephew - was elected alderman of the 11th Ward in 2015.
But with Thompson's conviction forcing him out of office, many had been calling on Lightfoot to name an Asian American to serve in the ward.
The ward is all but certain to become the city's first majority Asian American ward when the city's new ward maps are set. While new ward maps have yet to be approved, and will likely have to be decided by voters in a June referendum, both competing versions drawn up by the City Council's Black Caucus and Latino Caucus would make the 11th Ward an Asian American majority ward.
Lee was one of 27 people who applied for the 11th Ward seat, and a committee reviewed those applications before recommending a list of finalists to Lightfoot.
"Nicole has my total confidence, and more importantly we will make sure that she is set up and supported for success," Lightfoot said Thursday afternoon as she formally announced Lee's appointment.
Lightfoot originally expected to appoint someone to the seat in time for a confirmation vote at Wednesday's City Council meeting, and the Rules Committee had been set for an initial vote on Tuesday, but Monday night, Lightfoot's office announced she would need "a bit more time" to make her choice.
Asked about the delay after Wednesday's council meeting, Lightfoot reiterated that she simply needed more time to make her choice.
Lightfoot has scheduled a 2 p.m. press conference in Bridgeport to announce Lee's selection.