Andre Vasquez, the 40th Ward alderman who argues about debt, power and who gets to decide

On Oct. 14, Ald. Andre Vasquez Jr. (40th Ward) had the kind of day that explains him. His Smart Streets ordinance, SO2026-0028833, which makes the bus-lane and bike-lane camera program permanent and citywide, passed 49 to 0 without a word of debate. A few hours earlier he had stood up on the floor to explain why he would vote to override Mayor Brandon Johnson's veto of O2026-0026270, the ordinance requiring 30 votes instead of 26 to issue City debt.

That was not where he had been two weeks before. When the Council passed the debt rule on Sept. 29, 32 to 15, the Clerk's roll call records Vasquez as not voting; the same day he introduced his own Bond Vote Transparency Ordinance, O2026-0029054. On Oct. 14 he told the chamber he had spent the weekend looking for a way to get accountability on borrowing without raising the threshold, and had not found one. The override drew 33 yeas and 17 nays and failed; WBBM reported that was one short of the 34 needed. The Bond Buyer reported on Oct. 15 that Vasquez supported the override.

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He argues from the City's debt, not from the mayor's name

Vasquez's floor style is to start far back and build. On the debt rule he opened with birth:

"Every person in Chicago is born in debt. Every single person that has been born, that is going to be born, has money they owe without any decisions they've made as individuals."

He had made the same argument in the Finance Committee on Sept. 14, when the ordinance was recommended, and he was careful then to aim it at the office rather than the man in it:

"So I'm not concerned about the current mayor. I'm concerned about every mayor in that seat, including the one to come after us."

The other half of his case is about how votes get made. On Oct. 14 he said the first colleague he called after his election was Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), not because they would agree but because he wanted to understand downtown:

"The currency of the day is relationships. If you want to get to 26, you better know 50. I'm a democratic socialist. I got elected."

He closed by telling colleagues a harder borrowing rule would force the choices they avoid, naming a property tax and a corporate head tax, and pointing at one department that he said takes 53 percent of the operating fund: "Make the tough decisions because our city and our kids deserve it."

He votes with the mayor's side most of the time, and against it on money and police

On the 92 divided roll calls this term in our record, Vasquez voted yes 79 times, no 11 times and was recorded not voting twice. The yes votes include most of what the mayor sent: the 2024 budget, the November 2023 resolution to put a real estate transfer tax for homeless housing before voters, and the February 2025 general obligation bond ordinance that passed 26 to 23, which he later said he supported "because we like to maintain our roads and our bridges."

The no votes cluster. He voted against the mayor's amended police contract in December 2023, against arbitration in police discipline cases in February 2024, and against the 2025 revenue ordinance that passed 27 to 23 in December 2024. In December 2025 he voted no on the 2026-2027 bond ordinance and the management ordinance, and on the revenue ordinance, where he was recorded not voting, he filed a resolution the next day to record that he had intended to vote no. In 2026 he voted no on the curfew ordinance and on the rollback of the tipped-wage ordinance.

The pattern fits what he said at the Sept. 9 License Committee hearing on the Bally's casino, where he complained that the administration was not sharing information and that an official the committee had asked for, Jason Lee, was not there: "I think for the general public, if you're a Chicagoan, it should be pretty embarrassing what you're watching here."

Source: City Clerk · as of Oct 22, 2026

Non-routine matters introduced this term, by the Clerk's category. Source: City Clerk.

The immigration chair whose fights have been with the mayor as often as with Washington

Vasquez came to the Council by beating the man who ran its Finance Committee. WBEZ reported that on April 2, 2019, he defeated Ald. Patrick O'Connor, a 36-year incumbent and floor leader for Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel, 54 percent to 46 percent, after placing second to him in February. He was then a senior manager at AT&T who had rapped under the name Prime, according to NBC Chicago.

That past was the campaign's controversy. ABC7 reported on March 15, 2019, that O'Connor raised rap lyrics from Vasquez's 20s and said there was no room for homophobia or misogyny; Vasquez apologized, said there was no excuse for them and that he had put others down to feel bigger. NBC Chicago reported that O'Connor's campaign built a website cataloguing lyrics and hip-hop forum comments dated 2001 to 2010, and that Vasquez said he was not proud of who he had been. Neither outlet reported a response from community groups.

As chair of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, his biggest fight was with his own side. In January 2024, WBEZ reported, sixteen alderpersons asked Johnson to rescind the 60-day limit on migrant shelter stays, writing that the City should not be handing out eviction notices; Vasquez told WBEZ the policy could lead to more homelessness and that it was not about being for or against the mayor. CBS Chicago reported that he led the letter and that volunteers described crisis-level anxiety in the shelters. The mayor's office told WBEZ it would keep evaluating the policy. In September 2023, when the City proposed moving migrants to a Greektown hostel, CBS Chicago reported Vasquez said every neighborhood had to share the responsibility, while Ald. Bill Conway said he had not asked for the plan and called a community meeting.

By 2025 the committee's work had turned to federal enforcement. Borderless Magazine reported that at its first meeting in months, on March 18, 2025, Vasquez described know-your-rights workshops run with The Resurrection Project and the National Immigrant Justice Center. On Sept. 14, 2025, CBS Chicago reported, someone left a dead rat and a note calling immigrants vermin at his Western Avenue office; he said most people were supportive, that he wanted to talk to whoever left it, and that the office would stay open. Police reported no arrest.

On Sept. 23 he told the Council what that year had looked like from the ward:

"We had about a week. We had 750 people show up from around the neighborhood ready to throw down."

What to watch

Four referendum resolutions he filed for the Feb. 23, 2027 ballot are pending. Three went to the Rules Committee on Sept. 23: R2026-0028517 on ranked-choice voting for City offices, R2026-0028518 on bus rapid transit on Western Avenue, and R2026-0028519 on a data center moratorium. A second data center question, R2026-0029440, was introduced Oct. 14. His Bond Vote Transparency Ordinance is in Finance. Smart Streets now moves to CDOT's rollout schedule, with the first new corridors in 2027.

NBC Chicago reported on June 3, 2026, that Vasquez is among Council members linked to possible mayoral runs, with no campaign announced; the first round is Feb. 23, 2027. The next City Council meeting is where the Rules Committee's handling of his ballot questions will show.