Drake Warren said his campaign for Cook County commissioner is rooted in a simple idea: helping shape the city he plans to grow old in.

The industrial engineer, organizer and openly pansexual candidate is running for the Cook County Board’s 10th District seat, challenging incumbent Commissioner Bridget Gainer, who has held the position since 2010, in a race spanning parts of Chicago’s North and Northwest sides.

Warren, who moved to Chicago after college and quickly decided it would be home for life, said his campaign grew out of frustration with what he sees as missed opportunities in local government, particularly around health care, housing and ethics.

“I want to know I’m growing old in the city I served well,” Warren said.

Raised by two gay mothers who left rural Virginia seeking a place where they could build a family safely, Warren said his upbringing shaped his understanding of migration and his belief that public policy should expand who gets to feel secure in their community.

That perspective—combined with a decade of organizing experience ranging from housing advocacy to environmental restoration—led him to pursue elected office.

Campaign centers health care, ethics and everyday systems

Warren framed the race as an opportunity to shift how the county approaches stewardship of public systems that residents rely on daily.

His top priorities include strengthening the Cook County health system, responding to federal immigration enforcement and expanding housing supply through urbanist policies aimed at lowering costs.

Warren pointed to recent safety-net hospital closures in the district—including Weiss Memorial Hospital—and the loss of Medicaid coverage for thousands of residents as urgent concerns.

He said the county should explore expanding publicly run health care plans, improving reimbursement timelines to providers and updating provider networks so patients can more easily find care.

“I think it’s worth that Herculean undertaking to save lives,” Warren said of expanding public health coverage.

Warren also emphasized policies aimed at protecting immigrants, including ending county contracts that could share data with federal immigration authorities and expanding remote services so residents can access care or comply with court requirements without risking detention.

Alongside policy proposals, Warren’s campaign places heavy emphasis on ethics reform, proposing policies that would bar officials from participating in votes tied to their employers and treat the commissioner position as a full-time job.

Warren said he wants voters to see his candidacy as a generational shift toward officials who rely on the same transit, rental housing and public services as many constituents.

“I depend on the systems that a lot of underrepresented renters and transit users are relying on,” Warren said.

LGBTQ+ representation and policy stakes

Warren said LGBTQ+ representation is a meaningful—though not exclusive—dimension of his campaign.

The 10th District includes some of Chicago’s most visibly queer neighborhoods, and Warren said maintaining LGBTQ+ voices on the county board is particularly important as existing representation may shift with openly gay Commissioner Kevin Morrison running for Congress.

“This is an opportunity to make LGBTQ+ Chicago history,” said Warren, who noted he would be the first openly LGBTQ+ commissioner to represent the district.

Many of Warren’s policy priorities intersect directly with queer issues, particularly health care access, housing stability and data privacy protections, Warren said.

Warren emphasized that gender-affirming care and abortion care must be treated as core health care services.

“When I talk about health care being a human right, there are not exceptions to that,” Warren said.

He also highlighted coordination of care for people living with HIV and others navigating long-term medical needs as federal funding uncertainty grows.

Warren said his candidacy is ultimately less about personal ambition than building a pipeline of new public servants and strengthening trust in local government. He said he hopes to use the platform to uplift other candidates from similar backgrounds.

“It’s got to be a ripple effect where you bring others up with you,” Warren said.