Zoe Ma
Affordable housing developer. Candidate for mayor of Chicago, on the ballot February 23, 2027.
Builds and manages affordable apartment buildings, chairs the Cook County Green Party, and says she would be the city's first Chinese American, Muslim, and naturalized mayor; grew up working-class in China and arrived in Chicago in 1994 with $40. Filed 17,000 signatures.
Campaign website (zoemaformayor.com)
Campaign money
- Committee: Friends of Zoe Ma for Mayor
- Raised: $60K
- Spent: $65K
- Cash on hand: $3,228
- Since the committee formed May 28, 2026, through Sept. 30. Nearly all of it was loans from one Wilmette company. 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
Not listed in the ChicagoSpeaks poll, Sept. 2026 (Mansueto Institute / NORC). 0.0 points of support per $1 million spent.
What they would do
- Guaranteed income as a top priority, pointing to the city's pilot that helped people keep their homes.
Chicago's never short on money. It's about priority.
(CBS Chicago, Sept. 1, 2026) - Follow the money to see how much actually reaches affordable housing.
Let's follow the money
(CBS Chicago, Sept. 1, 2026) - Opportunity for everyone in the city: property tax reform, youth poverty, and free career tutoring in the public schools.
I think that opportunity should be available to everyone in the city
(CBS Chicago, Sept. 1, 2026)
AI summary
Main points
Poverty: A guaranteed income program as the first priority, costed at about $6 million for 1,000 people for a year.
Housing money: Audit where the affordable housing money goes, from a developer who builds it.
Also: Property tax reform, youth poverty, and free career tutoring in the public schools.
Next to the others
Only Ma: Guaranteed income as the lead issue.
Housing: Ma builds affordable housing; Brewer ran the housing authority; Giannoulias, Quigley, and Holberg set unit targets.
Money: Ma says the city is never short of money, only of priorities; Quinlan and Kitover say it is near collapse.
On money
Says the city has the money and lacks only the priorities; would trace where the affordable housing money goes and fund guaranteed income at a few million dollars a year.
Even if we find like 1,000 people for guaranteed income for a year, that's only $6 million
(CBS Chicago, Sept. 1, 2026)Let's see how much money actually goes toward affordable housing, while we have $425 million could really help.
(CBS Chicago, Sept. 1, 2026)
Pizza
No position on record.
Also on the record
- Says she joined the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests before coming to Chicago with $40. (cbsnews.com)
Compiled from public sources: