Mayor Brandon Johnson spent nearly three times as much money as he raised in the second quarter of this year, and has just over $631,309 in the bank less just two weeks before mayoral candidates start circulating their nominating petitions.
Johnson already faced a huge fundraising disadvantage, having closed the first quarter of 2026 with $813,125 in campaign cash on hand — compared to $18.3 million for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
Giannoulias has continued to widen that gap.
A prolific fundraiser, Giannoulias now leads the mayor by at least $21 million, pending his latest quarterly report, which had not been filed as of late Wednesday afternoon.
The latest reports filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show the first-term mayor raised $109,000 and spent $290,000 in the second quarter of 2026.
Giannoulias’ major donations have included $500,000 from Liz Lefkofsky, wife of Eric Lefkofsky, the billionaire founder and CEO of Tempus AI and co-founder of Groupon; $1 million from the company and family of billionaire real estate and casino magnate Neil Bluhm; $250,000 apiece from the IBEW Illinois PAC, the DRIVE Committee, a Washington D.C.-based political action committee of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and LFO Management LLC; and another $135,000 from the Teamsters local.
Giannoulias also received $100,000 contributions from: Jonathan Levin, president of GCM Grosvenor, the global alternative asset management firm run by billionaire businessman Michael Sacks; Monroe Management; Jeffrey Aronin, CEO of Paragon Biosciences; and David Helfand, CEO of Equity Commonwealth.
Giannoulias is running for re-election as secretary of state and has not yet declared his candidacy for mayor. But he already is running feel-good commercials, apparently trying to raise his name recognition with Chicago voters.
Johnson’s failure to shift his fundraising into high gear and his refusal to definitively say he’ll seek re-election have some political observers continuing to question the mayor’s political intentions.
Still, he wasn’t sounding worried after Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
“Every campaign that I ran, I won. So, my confidence will always remain strong,” the mayor told reporters, though he still “not made any declaration of a time line about when I will make my declaration clear” about running again or walking away. Instead, he added, he’s focused on “carrying out the hopes and dreams and aspirations” of Chicagoans.
A new poll commissioned by the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago and conducted by NORC at the university is likely to fuel more “will he or won’t he run” questions. It shows that only 13.6% of likely Chicago voters want Johnson to seek a second term.
Professor Christopher Berry, faculty director of the Mansueto Institute, acknowledged “a lot can happen between now and” the first round of voting on Feb. 23. But Berry said it is “hard to be optimistic about Brandon Johnson’s prospects” based on the poll results.
“He gets low marks on all of our questions and these negative views are shared by essentially all demographic groups,” Berry said in a press release.
Johnson’s approval rating stands at 23%, compared to 25% in a poll by the same group in December. The new poll of 1,194 Chicagoans over age 18 was conducted June 15-23 and has a margin of error of four percentage points.
City Hall lobbyist John Kelly, whose clients include Bally’s, is second in mayoral fundraising with $2.04 million. He raised $1.54 million in the second quarter, $600,000 of it in loans. That includes $250,000 from Kelly-owned Sentinel Security, which provides security services for Bally’s.
Kelly’s campaign is chaired by former lakefront Ald. Bill Singer. His campaign treasurer is former Chicago Blackhawks great Chris Chelios.
Retiring Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza closed the quarter with $1.6 million in cash on hand. But she also spent more money [$145,000] than she took in [$139,000]. Her only mega-donor is former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, who gave $100,000.
Entrepreneur Joe Holberg also has more than $1 million on hand — however, more than $850,000 of that consists of previous loans from Holberg to his own campaign. This quarter, he brought in more than $331,000 and spent about $30,000 of it.
Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas didn’t spend any money, but also didn’t raise any, closing out the quarter with $278,000 — about one-third of Johnson’s tally.
Ald. Bill Conway (34th), who is considering a race for mayor, closed the quarter with $705,451 in cash on hand after loaning himself $500,000. Fundraising is not a major concern for Conway, whose billionaire father co-founded the Carlyle Group, a prominent private equity firm.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who has declared his candidacy for mayor, transferred $75,000 from his Quigley for Congress fund. He raised $185,000 and closed the second quarter with $376,676 in cash on hand.
Small business owner and Rogers Park resident Liam Stanton raised more than $58,000 while spending more than $23,000, leaving him with about $155,640 at the end of the quarter.
Giannoulias and Mendoza “appear to be ahead of the pack at this point” with 52% and 47% of Mansueto poll respondents “excited about” their respective candidacies for mayor. The same poll showed 58% of likely Chicago voters were “not excited about the idea of Johnson running again.”
Contributing: Violet Miller