Political fundraising for the June 28 Primary has swung into high gear as Richard Boykin and Toni Preckwinkle step up their campaigns in the race for Cook County Board President.
Willie Wilson, who is considering another run for Chicago mayor, gave Boykin $35,000 on February 17. Wilson told the Crusader that he plans to drop $50,000 into Boykin’s campaign fund when he returns from an out-of-town trip next week.
So far, Wilson’s $35,000 contribution is Boykin’s largest donation among 13 donors that include Boykin himself. The former Cook County Commissioner and attorney in Oak Park, donated $5,000 to his campaign the same day Wilson gave his hefty donation, campaign records show.
The big donations are part of Wilson’s endorsement of Boykin, who aims to take down Preckwinkle in the Democratic Primary years after the two fell out over Preckwinkle’s failed sugar tax.
In 2019 during her campaign for Chicago mayor, Preckwinkle unsuccessfully sought Wilson’s endorsement after he took 13 Black wards in the Primary race.
Boykin announced his campaign at the South Loop Hotel in February, but since last December, he has raised $79,500, according to campaign finance filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Most of Boykins’ donors are private residents. Two donors each gave $10,000 to Boykin on March 14 and March 23. State campaign records show Boykin is stepping up his fundraising efforts as he received nine of his 13 donations in March alone.
Preckwinkle’s campaign war chest is much bigger. Since December she has raised over $295,000 in donations. On January 19, Governor J.B. Pritzker gave her $65,000, her largest donation in recent memory. On February 14, the Illinois Hospital Association gave Preckwinkle a $5,000 donation.
In March alone, Preckwinkle received a total of 38 donations from businesses and private citizens. One came from the Illinois Black Business Political Action Fund, which gave Preckwinkle a $15,000 donation on March 22.
Preckwinkle last September announced that she will run for a fourth term and will campaign based on her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Blacks still remember her temporary closing of Provident Hospital at the beginning of the pandemic. There was also the abrupt 2020 firing of Terry Mason, the former Chief Operating Officer for the Cook County Health Department. Preckwinkle maintains she had nothing to do with it.
Preckwinkle stood by former Cook County Tax Assessor Joe Berrios as his office was accused of giving big tax breaks to owners of expensive homes while placing a higher share of the tax burden on low-income homeowners, many of whom live in Chicago’s Black and Latino neighborhoods.
In 2014, Boykin was elected to serve in the District 1 seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Three years later, he clashed with Preckwinkle when he opposed her Sweetened Beverage Tax.
In 2018, Preckwinkle endorsed his opponent in the 2018 county elections, political rookie Brandon Johnson, who defeated Boykin. In 2020, Boykin finished third in a Primary election to replace retiring Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown. A Crusader analysis of the election results showed that Boykin won just over 40 percent of the Black vote.
A native of Englewood, Boykin graduated from Chicago Vocational High School, where he was an All-City and All-State football player.
He earned a scholarship to play football at Central State University in Ohio, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. After college graduation, Boykin worked as a teacher in Chicago Public Schools, then went on to earn a law degree at the University of Dayton School of Law. He became a licensed attorney in Illinois in 1994.
Preckwinkle is the 35th president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. She was the first Black woman to be elected to the office. A Hyde Park resident, Preckwinkle served as alderman of the 4th Ward for 19 years before she was elected as Cook County Board President in 2010.
Preckwinkle has worked to reduce the population of the Cook County Jail and Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center while preserving public safety, reducing recidivism, and promoting fair and equitable access to justice.
As Cook County Board President, Preckwinkle oversees one of the nation’s largest public health and hospitals systems and one of the nation’s largest criminal justice systems. She is a mentor to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whom Preckwinkle helped get elected in 2016 and 2021.
