chicagomag.com · Feb 17, 2026 · Collected from GDELT
Published: 20260217T161500Z
1JB PritzkerIllinois governor Pritzker could soon become the state’s first three-term governor since Jim Thompson, but he has his eyes on an even bigger office: the presidency. He’s already shown he’s game to take on President Trump. He made a public promise just days after Trump was reelected: “You come for my people, you come through me.” And he’s made good on those words, pushing back against the president’s deportation raids, including by signing into law a bill preventing civil immigration arrests at courthouses. He’s fought Trump’s agenda in other ways, too. Last summer, he signed a bill making the abortion pill more easily available here and increasing access to abortion on college campuses, burnishing his credentials as an ardent defender of abortion rights. Pritzker has also wielded his power within Chicago politics: His vocal opposition was pivotal in defeating the mayor’s proposed corporate head tax. One testament to Pritzker’s influence is that he rarely vetoes bills, since the supermajority Democratic legislature — which he helped build with his campaign donations — is firmly in line with his policies. He isn’t afraid to say no to people with friends in high places, either: When Pritzker visited the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV asked him not to sign a bill that would legalize medical aid in dying. Pritzker did it anyway. 2Richard UihleinRepublican donor The billionaire shipping supplies tycoon and his wife, Liz, were the fourth-largest donors in the country during the 2024 election cycle, at $143 million — and they got their money’s worth. Not only did Republicans win a trifecta in Washington, but the GOP continued its march rightward, mirroring Uihlein’s staunchly conservative politics. The family’s foundation has also supported the late Charlie Kirk’s political organization, Turning Point USA, which has helped push young voters to the right, a decisive factor in 2024. Just how far right is Uihlein? He donated heavily to groups that cast doubt on the 2020 election, including $1 million the day after the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack to a nonprofit that employs a prominent election-denying lawyer who helped challenge the result in Georgia. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, he and Liz gave big to state initiatives around the country to ban abortion, most of which failed. The reclusive Lake Forest residents contributed $50 million to right-wing Darren Bailey’s 2022 Illinois gubernatorial run, which stalled in the general election. This time, they’ve switched their support to the more moderate — and thus more electable — Ted Dabrowski. “Uihlein is the money behind the GOP in Illinois, and the GOP in Illinois isn’t doing well with his money,” says a political consultant. 3Austan GoolsbeeFederal Reserve Bank of Chicago president Last year, Goolsbee was one of 12 voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which determines U.S. monetary policy. Though he rotates off this year (he’ll be back in 2027), he will still be a key figure in setting interest rates. He’s a frequent commentator on economic issues, seen often on PBS and CNBC, and his words have the power to move markets. (Crypto stocks tanked after he said in November he was “nervous” about inflation.) As a former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, Goolsbee might even be in line to become chair of the Federal Reserve — under a different president. Cautious about inflation, he voted against cutting rates in December, defying Trump’s wishes. As Trump has tried to stack the Fed with loyalists, Goolsbee has been a strong voice for central bank autonomy. “The independence of the Fed couldn’t be more important for the long-run inflation rate in this country,” he told NPR in January. He has also stood up for frequent Trump target Jerome Powell, calling him a “first-ballot Hall of Fame Fed chair.” The vocal defense of norms by Goolsbee and other presidents of the regional banks has helped maintain the wall between the White House and the Fed — for now. 4Toni PreckwinkleCook County Board president At 78, Preckwinkle is not ready to retire, instead gunning for her fifth term as county chief. “If I didn’t run for reelection, I’d just find a different job, and I doubt that I could find one that’s as interesting and challenging and as important as this one,” she said last year. Even in the autumn of her political career, she remains a kingmaker: 21 of the 23 candidates she endorsed as chair of the Cook County Democratic Party won in the 2024 primaries, with the notable exception of Clayton Harris III for state’s attorney. Another sign of her influence? Last year, the county board unanimously passed Preckwinkle’s $10 billion budget (imagine that, Mayor Johnson!), without adding any fees or taxes. Even the board’s lone Republican praised Preckwinkle’s fiscal discipline. 5Stacy Davis GatesChicago Teachers Union president Davis Gates made Brandon Johnson mayor and remains one of his closest allies. Last year, she added to her power portfolio by winning election as president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, whose political action committee has a $2 million fund that could be tapped for Johnson’s reelection efforts. Her local union has had mixed results of late: It dished out $2.8 million to support 10 candidates in the 2024 school board elections, but only four won. And as Johnson’s clout has declined, so has Davis Gates’s. She went all in supporting his proposed corporate head tax, only to see it get shot down. If Johnson loses reelection next year, Davis Gates’s influence will slide more, but challengers, be warned: She’s still powerful enough — and enough of a social media troll — to be a thorn in the side of any mayor whose agenda she opposes. 6Brandon JohnsonChicago mayor The mayor all the way down at No. 6? “He doesn’t even belong in the top 10,” gripes an alderperson who’s not a fan. That’s a bit harsh, but the reality is that Johnson enters his term’s final year as the weakest mayor in recent memory, thanks to an emboldened City Council. He had political capital and momentum early on, but his failure to persuade voters to pass his “mansion tax” on real estate transactions of more than $1 million stymied his agenda. More recently, the City Council voted 50–0 against his proposal to raise property taxes, then went over his head to pass a budget that did not include the corporate head tax he wanted. There have been successes, such as eliminating the subminimum wage for tipped restaurant workers. And despite concerns over Johnson being soft on crime, homicides are way down. Still, with his approval rating hovering somewhere between ketchup on hot dogs and the Packers, he has little chance to win reelection. 7Nick FuentesWhite Nationalist streamer Loathe him or loathe him, the 27-year-old shock artist and Berwyn resident has an unnervingly large following. An antisemite who has praised Hitler (“really fucking cool”) and a misogynist who says women shouldn’t have the right to vote, Fuentes is on the fringe of the fringe — but his influence has grown massively in the past year. The Lyons Township High School graduate loosely leads an army of far-right fans known as Groypers who aim to take over the Republican Party. However far-fetched that sounds, it became likelier after an October interview with Tucker Carlson in which Fuentes railed against “organized Jewry in America” and caused a firestorm that split the MAGA coalition. Yet despite denunciations of Fuentes from mainstream Republicans, conservative cultural critic Rod Dreher says he’s been told that 30 to 40 percent of young Republican staffers in D.C. are Groypers. (Dreher even warned Veep JD Vance about Fuentes’s growing clout.) With millions of followers tuning in to racist screeds that would make Father Coughlin blush, we ignore Fuentes’s power at our own peril. 8Michael SacksGCM Grosvenor chair and CEO Once dubbed the “Rahm whisperer” by this magazine for his influence with the former mayor, Sacks had seemed to lose some of his sway in recent years, particularly after the election of Brandon Johnson. But if you thought he had lost a step as a power player, well, reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. Sacks funded ads criticizing Johnson’s proposed corporate head tax during the 2025 budget battle, which so irritated Johnson that he challenged Sacks to a debate. Sacks didn’t take the bait, but he got the last word: His side overrode the mayor’s budget. Heading an alternative-investment firm with $87 billion in assets under management, Sacks was named executive of the year by Crain’s Chicago Business, which declared him “the most connected person in Chicago.” An ally of Pritzker, Sacks helped raise $97 million for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, ensuring its profitability. Sacks’s backing is considered critical in next year’s mayoral election. “He’s the name donor in Chicago,” says a political consultant. 9Joe MansuetoMorningstar executive chair and Chicago Fire owner The Bears and White Sox have struggled to get new stadiums built. Not the Fire. Mansueto, who made his money founding the investment research firm Morningstar, easily won approval from the City Council for a 22,000-seat venue in the South Loop. The key? He didn’t ask for public money. (It helps when you’re worth $5.1 billion.) The $650 million project will be privately funded, a shrewd move not just because it guaranteed political support but because it gives Mansueto more control. His agreement with Related Midwest, the firm behind the 78, gives the team 10 acres of land anchoring the riverfront development, which is slated to open in 2028. Next up: Trying to turn the Fire, who made the playoffs last season for the first time in eight years, into genuine contenders. Playing in a soccer-specific stadium rather than the cavernous Soldier Field certainly won’t hurt. 10Blase CupichArchbishop of Chicago Overseeing an archdiocese of nearly 2 million Catholics, Cupich was alrea