Matt Brewer
Trial lawyer, former CHA board chair. Candidate for mayor of Chicago, on the ballot February 23, 2027.
Partner at the law firm Bartlit Beck, former chair and interim CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority, and co-owner of The Wiener's Circle; 46, raised by his mother in Grand Crossing, Stanford's first Black student body president, Yale Law. Filed on the first day.
Full platform, open to comments
Campaign website (mattbrewer.com)
Campaign money
- Committee: Brewer for Chicago
- Raised: $405K
- Spent: $271K
- Cash on hand: $239K
- Since the committee formed June 25, 2026, through Sept. 30. Source
Money figures are each committee's quarterly reports to the Illinois State Board of Elections: spent is total expenditures from January 1 to September 30, 2026 (or since the committee formed), cash is funds available on September 30.
Support
0.1% of likely voters in the ChicagoSpeaks poll, Sept. 2026 (Mansueto Institute / NORC). 0.4 points of support per $1 million spent.
What they would do
- Rejects the choice between supporting police and investing in neighborhoods: do both.
For too long, we've been presented with a false choice about Chicago's future.
(Block Club Chicago, Oct. 26, 2026) - Attract businesses and jobs while investing in overlooked communities.
We can invest in our people without sacrificing our competitive edge.
(Block Club Chicago, Oct. 26, 2026) - A child's future should not depend on their zip code: early help for students who fall behind and a plan for every CPS graduate.
A child's future should not be determined by their zipcode.
(mattbrewer.com)
AI summary
Main points
Housing: Make it easier to build homes at every price, put vacant land back to use, protect renters from displacement, and help homeowners on fixed incomes stay.
Growth: Grow the tax base with more residents, businesses, and jobs instead of raising taxes, and tie job training to the employers the city recruits.
Safety and schools: Well-trained, accountable police who solve more crimes, every city service concentrated on the most violent blocks, and early help for students who fall behind.
Next to the others
Only Brewer: Concentrating every city service, not only police, on the blocks with the most violence.
Taxes: Brewer, Mendoza, Holberg, Nee, and Wilson say relief comes from a bigger tax base; Johnson wants the ultra-rich to pay more.
Renters: Brewer and Cardenas stress protecting renters from displacement; Quigley rejects new rent restrictions.
On money
Says the city cannot tax its way to prosperity and that taxing businesses more would mean the city has failed; would grow the tax base with residents, businesses, and jobs instead.
If the main source of revenue is taxing businesses, then taxing businesses more. Then, we've failed,
(ABC7 Chicago, June 25, 2026)Chicago cannot tax its way to prosperity.
(mattbrewer.com)
Pizza
No position on record.
Also on the record
- Co-owns The Wiener's Circle, the hot dog stand famous for insulting its customers. (blockclubchicago.org)
- Worked in the Chinese music industry in Beijing as a Luce fellow, and co-founded Chicago's first Black-owned cannabis dispensary with his mother and brother. (mattbrewer.com)
Compiled from public sources: