Asian American women make Chicago history by winning city council runoffs

 

Alderperson-elect Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, center front, with her Filipino American supporters.

When she’s sworn in next month, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth will join 11th Ward Ald. Nicole Lee as the only Asian Americans on Chicago's 50-member City Council. “I’m just thinking of my dad — never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined we’d get here,” she told the Sun-Times.

Manaa-Hoppenworth's upset victory gave Chicago two Asian American City Council members for the first time in the city's history.

"I am so proud to stand before you tonight as the first Chinese American elected to the City Council of Chicago," Lee told supporters at her victory party election night. "We've just participated in the first democratic process in the first Asian American majority ward. Let this moment, this memory, be one that you keep with you, as I will. If you ever doubt that a new path can be carved, don't."

The 11th Ward became the city's first Asian American majority ward under new ward maps going into effect in May in a Southwest Side ward that has long been the home of the powerful Daley family. The ward includes the Chinatown, Bridgeport, Armour Square, and Canaryville neighborhoods.

While most of the national media focused on Lee's historic run, on the North Side, Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, was making history under the radar.

Long-time community organizer and small business owner Manaa-Hoppenworth clinched her bid to make history as Chicago’s first Filipino American City Council member on April 7 when her opponent, Joe Dunne, conceded defeat in the 48th Ward runoff.

“I’m very excited to represent the Asian Americans in the 48th Ward and across the city,” Manaa-Hoppenworth told the Sun-Times on election day, April 4 “I’m just thinking of my dad — never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined we’d get here.”

Dunne conceded after more than 900 mail-in ballots were counted by Thursday evening with Dunne earning 48.17% of the vote to Manaa-Hoppenworth’s 51.83%

The April 4 election results will alter Chicago politics, long run by the political machine led by the Daley family and their supporters.

Manaa-Hoppenworth was endorsed by Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson and rode a wave of victories by progressive candidates.

By electing more progressive candidates, “voters said they are tired of doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same results,” according to Manaa-Hoppenworth.

“The voters told me at every door I knocked on that they wanted to make sure everybody had what they needed, housing first and foremost. To stop normalizing poverty, to make sure people get the health care they need,” Manaa-Hoppenworth said on election night. “We can do that with a more progressive City Council and mayor.”

Ald. Nicole Lee will represent Chicago's Chinatown.

Manaa-Hoppenworth joins Lee, who gave Chinatown's first Chinese American Alderman. She won her run-off election after being appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who lost her own bid for re-election

With all precincts reporting, Lee held 62% of the vote compared to her challenger Anthony Ciaravino's 38%.

Manaa-Hoppenworth is a longtime local small-business owner and community organizer running for alderwoman of Northside's 48th ward, which includes parts of Andersonville, Edgewater, and Uptown.

The first Filipino American elected to the Council in its 185 year history, Manaa-Hoppenworth is a mother of three kids, all of whom attended Chicago Public Schools, she dances tango in her free time, is a licensed physical therapist, and identifies as queer. Her experiences as a Fillipina American and progressive activist also helped shape her political views on status-quo politics.

As co-founder of Indivisible Illinois, she collaborated with individuals and organizations with both rural and urban interests for the benefit of the entire state and, in Chicago, coordinated grassroots efforts to knock on doors and help get progressive Democrats like US Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and Governor JB Pritzker elected in 2018.

Other AAPI candidates running for Chicago Alderman seats were Roxanne Volkmann, and James Suh. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Chicago swears in first Chinese American woman onto the City Council

CITY OF CHICAGO

Nicole Lee, center, was sworn into the Chicago City Council.

It is not often that the 45-member Chicago City Council agree on something but on Monday, they unanimously voted to seat Nicole Lee, the first Asian American woman to serve on Chicago's governing body. 

Lee will serve as the alderman for the city's 11th Ward, which is home to Chicago's Chinatown.

“I’ve spent most of my 47 years as a resident in Chinatown,” Lee told reporters after Monday’s confirmation. “I have deep roots in the community, I’m raising my two teenage sons and now they represent the 4th generation of Lee’s that live in the building my grandparents bought.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot recommended the historic appointment after a selection committee picked her out of 29 candidates, which included several AAPI candidates.

Lee replaces former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, who was forced to resign after being convicted of income tax fraud and lying to federal regulators.

Lee, who holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago, has worked at United Airlines for the past 15 years, spending the last three as director of social impact and community engagement. 

She has also served as president of the Chicago chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, vice president of the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, cofounder and co-chair of the Asian Giving Circle, leader of Haines Elementary Local School Council, and member of the UIC Asian American Advisory Council.

Lee told alderpeople her “top priority” would be delivering essential constituent services to 11th Ward residents while staying focused on community safety, but has thus far not weighed in on where she stands on political issues facing the city.

Her father is Gene Lee, was a top mayoral aide of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is the uncle of the alderman replaced by Nicole Lee.

Gene Lee was convicted in 2014 for embezzlement, stealing from charities. The crime did not involve his duties as Daley’s deputy chief of staff.

Nicole Lee’s father was also known as the “Mayor of Chinatown.” During his sentencing dozens of neighborhood supporters erupted into cheers when he avoided a prison sentence.

Her father's questionable past history apparently did not affect Lightfoot's final decision to appoint her. "She  is her own person," Lightfoot said of Nicole Lee.

Lee taking over a seat held by Daley Thompson is also seen as a change in Chicago's changing demographics.

The 11th Ward used to be a majority Irish American and served as the power base for the Daley's long reign in Chicago politics.

Lee's ascension reflects the fast growing Asian American population of the city. Chinatown is still the cultural hub of the Chicago's AAPI community.  

In Chicago, the Asian American population grew by 31%, an increase of about 45,000, according to the 2020 Census.

Lee will hold the 11th Ward seat until the city elections next year. She has not announced whether she will be running for the post.

“I will be the first ever woman and Chinese American to serve as the 11th Ward alderman,” Lee said to cheers at an introductory press conference last week in Bridgeport. “I cannot be more proud to represent the people that came before me, the communities that raised me and the neighborhoods that my boys are growing up in today.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don't miss additional commentary, news, views and tips from an AAPI perspective by following @DioknoEd on Twitter.