Christian Mitchell—a former Illinois state representative and deputy governor—is on the statewide election ticket alongside Gov. JB Pritzker in a bid for lieutenant governor, as his running mate seeks a third term. (Outgoing Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is running for the U.S. Senate.)
Mitchell graduated from the University of Chicago in 2008, and planned on attending law school and obtaining a high-paying job. However, things changed when a mentor of his urged him to go into community-organizing and public service after graduating. He eventually became involved in politics, running for state rep at age 25. Among Mitchell’s accomplishments during that time (2013-19) was co-sponsoring a bill that would bring millions to South Side schools through the creation of an education funding formula. He also was the first Black co-sponsor of Illinois’ marriage-equality bill that then-Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law in 2013.
Note: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: I’m actually going to ask you a question that I also asked the governor. In the wake of what has happened lately—such as with [now former state Rep.] Harry Benton [who resigned in the wake of sexual-misconduct charges] and even with our president: How much does character play a role in politics these days?
Christian Mitchell: I think character matters in everything. Maybe that’s because I’m Debbie Gist’s son. My mom was an intensive care unit nurse and she raised me as a person of faith. And so character matters a great deal. My grandfather’s a union steelworker. He’s the guy we were joking about before we started recording, who would’ve said you’re on time if you’re five minutes early.
You mentioned the Harry Benton thing. The governor’s been clear about this, and I would agree. There are models for how to protect people through a human resources process that we know work. They work in corporate America; they work in other legislative bodies. I think it is our hope that the House will be very expedient in adopting ways to protect its staff.
However, character doesn’t matter to everybody. Think about what President Trump did and even the very real crimes that he committed. Everything Donald Trump does is, in fact, about himself. We may disagree on some stuff, but we can all agree the convicted felon maybe shouldn’t be president, right?
WCT: At this point, things may make people want to move to the other side of “Lake America.”
CM: [Smiles wryly and shakes head] My view, Andrew, is that if the president wants to use his pen, he could use it to remove tariffs that are hurting our farmers. He could use it to make sure that we are no longer screwing our beef producers. He could make sure that we are getting some of those consumer goods that we all purchase. And he’s saying the tariffs are going to help bring back industry; they’re not. They’re just raising prices against Illinois families.
WCT: I think a lot of people don’t exactly know what a lieutenant governor does, feeling he or she just waits for the governor to leave office. [Mitchell smiles.] What does the lieutenant governor do, at least in this state?
CM: The lieutenant governor, I like to say, is the chief partner to the governor in governance. So ultimately, my first goal is to carry out the governor’s agenda. So when he talks about how we lower costs and raise wages, that is going to be the thing that I’m going to be focused on helping him do.
The lieutenant governor also runs a Rural Affairs Council and a committee on military construction. Going to all 102 counties—if I can do so in my first term—would be a goal. I plan to focus on economic development; there’s a Main Street program that we partner on with our Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. I want to reinvigorate downtowns in Belleville, Alton and Centralia but also the South Side of Chicago. So having walkable communities with really great businesses that put people to work is something I’ll care about. Economic development is also tied in, I think, with higher education. How do we continue to make higher ed more affordable and educate people for the jobs of the future?
WCT: After graduating from college, you were going to attend law school—but you pivoted to community organizing. Was there a pivotal person, event or something else that spurred that decision?
CM: Yeah, I’ll give you the original pivotal person, which will shock no one: Barack Obama. In 2004, I was not engaged in politics; I was literally playing video games. Then I heard him give his speech in 2004, at the convention. I said, “Well, that guy sounds like me and he kind of looks like me. His backstory reminds me of me. Maybe there’s something to this politics thing. I ought to look into it.” So the seed had been planted and I later worked on his campaign, in 2012.
But, for me, really, there were two people in my college experience [who were pivotal]. I had a professor named John Eason, who was my resident head, and who introduced me to Will Burns, who was an alderman and state rep. I eventually [succeeded him as] state rep when he ran for alderman. They really had an influence on me.
WCT: What’s one thing you admire about Gov. Pritzker?
CM: He’s a good man. I always say that when people talk about the chief executive, they’re thinking, “What’s their business acumen? What’s their political experience? How do they get things done?” Those are all very important things, and JB’s got a great record on every single one of them. And I knew all that when I first met him.
But what struck me immediately, Andrew, is that he cares. He thinks, “I want to do the right thing. How do we make that politically possible?” He is voracious in how he reads and consumes knowledge. When I was a deputy governor working on infrastructure, he’d send me articles from companies and logistics hubs in Germany, saying, “Hey, they’re doing this. Get this to the Department of Transportation because we ought to think about doing that, too.” He’s smart and he cares.
WCT: Now, after seeing everything he’s done, is there anything you would have done differently than the governor?
CM: I was around for most of it, and I think that I don’t know that I’d say there’s something I would necessarily have done differently so much as I would say there are things that we learned, in retrospect. If hindsight is 20-20, there are things I think all of us would do differently.
When I think about how we did the COVID response, we feel we were doing everything we could to be guided by the science. Did some things stay closed too long? Did some things open too soon? I think the governor would say, based on what we knew at the time, we thought we made the best decisions—but, in retrospect, we maybe could have done some of that better. I think about what we did with cannabis legalization, for example. I feel very good about the number of people of color who have licenses and the hundreds of thousands of low-level convictions expunged.
WCT: Walk me through the landscape of the fight for marriage equality that took place in Illinois in 2013.
CM: I appreciate you asking that question, Andrew; I think that now we’ve come to a good place where marriage equality is the law of the land—so why would you be against that? But as you pointed out, 2013 was a very different time. I was the first Black co-sponsor of marriage equality in the house, and was proud to do it.
But it was controversial. I had a legislative district that was very expansive, very mixed, very diverse, depending on where you were. [Marriage equality] was either very popular or very not. I always believe my mentors taught me that you run for office because you want to do things—but I also believe you run knowing what you’re willing to lose for. And for me, civil rights is always something I’m willing to lose for, as a Black man in America.
I’m straight, but I’m also an ally. And I understand, as a Black man, what it means when the full rights and citizenship of citizenship are excluded from you based on some immutable characteristic.
I wanted to make sure I was on the right side of history, so it was a fight. Greg Harris was an extraordinary leader on that bill; he did civil unions back in 2007 and he introduced it every year. People forget that the [marriage] bill failed on May 31, 2013; it wasn’t ready to be called. And Greg took a lot of heat; people called him a traitor for not calling it. I will never forget what a profound act of courage it was to take that heat [as well as] what it taught me about being a legislator and a public servant.
WCT: Trans-related issues are really front and center at this point in time. Where do you stand on the issue, for example, of trans women participating in women’s sports?
CM: So, two answers to this. And the first is that our Republican friends are the ones really making this an issue. This is all to distract from the fact that everything the president does when he wakes up and the Republican Party does is to make your life worse. They’re the ones who have cut Medicaid and who are going after the Voting Rights Act to dilute Black voting power. Of course, they’re going after immigrants as well.
I think the number of trans athletes in Illinois is, like, three. I can’t remember how many [there are] out of hundreds and hundreds of thousands. So I don’t see it as a big issue.
I think there’s a way to figure out how to do this fairly and make sure that everyone feels respected and protected. No one in the entire time I’ve been on this campaign has asked me about that issue. But I also think focusing on the issues, like gender-affirming care, is important.
WCT: If you could ask [Republican gubernatorial candidate] Darren Bailey one question—and he had to tell you the truth—what would that question be?
CM: Now, it would be “Do you believe dinosaurs and men walked the earth at the same time?” Because apparently he’s not clear on that. [Note: The Pritzker campaign has released statements saying that the curriculum at the Christian school Bailey founded with his wife teaches that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time.] The school also teaches that the majority of slave owners were nice to their slaves, which is obviously not true.
I guess my second question would be, “Why do you keep talking about property taxes when you raise them by 81%? [Note:WCIA reported that, while he was part of the North Clay School District, “tax records at the Clay County Treasurer’s office and the Illinois Department of Revenue showed that from 1996 to 2012, Bailey voted to raise the property tax levy by a combined 81%.”] I don’t understand.
WCT: Is it true that you are a big fan of former President Ulysses S. Grant?
CM: Yes! It’s just such an American story. He grew up in hardscrabble poverty, failed at multiple things in his life and was a store clerk in Galena, Illinois, when the Civil War broke out. He was so incensed by the attack on the Constitution, by the idea that people would raise a flag of rebellion and treason for an asinine cause like slavery, that he goes out and becomes the greatest general in American history, I’d argue.
General Grant actually was still general of the armies before he became president, and eliminated the first version of the Ku Klux Klan. He understood that if we did not stamp out the scourge of racism right then and there, we’ll be dealing with this for generations. He just had this clarity of vision and was an incredibly moral person.
WCT: And asking something I’ve asked others, what does representation mean to you?
CM: It’s hard to be what you can’t see. You asked me what got you into this and what changed my path—and, more than almost anything else, it was Barack Obama’s speech in 2004.
There are white Americans who grew up with a Black president. And so now if you see a Black, Latino or Latina, or Asian American CEO or political figure, you’ve now seen something different than what everything else has looked like to that point. What that means for the country and what that means for what we believe are the limits on people are incredibly important.