(CHICAGO) — Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), a Democratic Socialist, announced his candidacy for Illinois’ 4th Congressional District as an Independent candidate on Wednesday., launching a campaign rooted in progress and the unyielding belief that working families must come before corporate billionaires – and giving voters an actual choice rather than a handpicked successor.
“People are tired, overworked and overtaxed,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “Yet the human spirit is prevailing in the 4th District. We’re not waiting for the Democratic Party to give us permission. We’re not sitting still at the bottom tier of a hierarchy mapped out by corporate billionaires on both sides of the aisle.”
Sigcho-Lopez’s vision for his work in Congress includes: housing, health care and mental health services for all, expanding Veterans health care access to include the families of Veterans, challenging corporate power in Congress and reforming the tax system to end tax breaks for billionaires, abolishing ICE and prosecuting federal agents who kidnapped, assaulted and murdered innocent people, ending the normalization of school shootings, and getting money out of politics.
“When ICE was attacking children as they trick or treated, gassing our communities and kidnapping our neighbors – while the rest of us were out there with megaphones, whistles and cameras demanding accountability – our outgoing congressman and his chief of staff hid the fact that he planned to retire,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “This helped his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, to run unopposed in the Democratic primary.”
“This seat belongs to the people who live here,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “True democracy means people get a choice in our elections, and that’s why I’m running. Because the people of the 4th District deserve more than backroom deals and a political system that shuts them out of the decisions that shape their lives.”
To get on the ballot as an Independent, Sigcho-Lopez must collect at least 10,816 valid petition signatures between Feb. 25 and May 26, 2026. IL-04 includes Chicago and suburban Cook County and eastern DuPage County.
