Clayton Harris III, a former prosecutor and current lecturer at the University of Chicago running for Cook County State’s Attorney, wants to carry on the office’s work of progressive prosecution.

Harris, a Washington Park resident, launched his campaign for the county’s top prosecutor in June, a little more than a month after Kim Foxx announced that she would not run for a third term.

In an interview with the Herald, Harris highlighted his more than 20 years of experience in the private sector, city and state government, as well as time as an assistant state’s attorney for Cook County.

“This office is just something that I have great love for,” he said. “When I was looking at the totality of what I had to offer at this point in time, I think that this is the right time for me.”

Harris said his biggest priorities are reducing robberies and gun-related crimes, protecting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, making the office’s collaboration with law enforcement more effective, combatting hate crimes and boosting the ranks of prosecutors.

A self-described “military brat,” Harris’ father was an officer in the U.S. Army and his mother was a teacher. “We moved mainly throughout the Midwest, the South and southern East Coast,” he said.

“Respect for authority, chain of command is extremely important,” he said of his childhood on military bases, as was self discipline and sacrifice.

After graduating from Wurzburg American High School in Germany, Harris returned stateside to pursue a degree in aerospace technology and mathematics from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. He graduated college in 1992 and moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum followed by the Pentagon in combat systems engineering and in its Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

He continued to work at the Pentagon full-time when he matriculated at the Howard University School of Law in 1996. During law school, he also worked full-time in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its law division, and at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Between his second and third year of law school, he interned at the Cook County state’s attorney’s office under then-State’s Attorney Richard Devine.

After graduating in 1999, he took an assistant state’s attorney position at the county office, where he worked in criminal appeals, traffic, narcotics and special prosecutions.

He pointed to his time in special prosecutions as an experience that helped shape his understanding of how to deal with the “totality of criminal activity, such as addressing the root causes of crime. Special prosecutions is responsible for investigating and prosecuting complex criminal and public corruption cases such as auto thefts, gang crimes, government and financial crimes, organized crime, cold cases and professional standards cases, which handles complaints against police officers.

Using the example of drug trafficking in Chicago, he argued, prosecutors’ time could be better spent going after the sources flooding narcotics into communities rather than the lower-level criminal charge of substance use.

“When we start talking about retail theft, carjackings, guns, what we’re really looking at are things that have flooded the community and what’s going on (in communities) that’s causing issues,” Harris said.

One way he’s proposed to take on this root cause, he said, is to create a new, 10th unit within special prosecutions to go after organized crime.

He said working in prosecutions, especially traffic appeals, which handles all traffic violations, gave him an intimate understanding of the office.

“You’re in there immediately, you’re putting on case after case,” Harris said. “It is moving constantly, so that was excellent right there to get ready for the sheer volume of the cases that we’re going through.”

In 2003, Harris left the county for the city. That year, he took the job as assistant to Mayor Richard Daley in the city’s intergovernmental affairs department, where he was responsible for moving the mayor’s legislative agenda along in Springfield.

Asked about why he left the state’s attorney office, Harris said it had to do with the majority of the defendants being Black men.

“I remember being in court and just looking behind me and seeing men who look like me in there,” he said. Once, he even prosecuted a man by the name of Clayton Harris. He said he was drawn to the mayor’s office for what he saw as a chance to help shape the legislation he had been enforcing.

Two years later, he moved to the city’s Department of Transportation, where he spent a year as its general counsel.

In 2006, he became chief of staff for the Illinois Department of Transportation, where his key project was the reconstruction of the Dan Ryan Expressway. By 2008, he was chief of staff over infrastructure for the State of Illinois under then-Governor Rod Blagojevich (D).

On the day that Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges, Harris said he stepped up to keep the government running amidst the chaos of the news. After this, he was named chief of staff for the governor’s remainder in office. (Blagojevich was ultimately found guilty for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and soliciting bribes. He served eight years in prison on federal corruption charges.)

He said this experience is part of what makes him uniquely qualified to lead the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. “I’ve been down in Springfield, I understand how Springfield works,” he said. “I can go down to Springfield and help get legislation that will benefit the country as we move forward.”

After Blagoyevich was impeached and removed from office, Harris pivoted to the private sector. Over the next 10 years, he did consulting, led government affairs for CH2M Hill, served as executive director for The Illinois International Port District and worked as Lyft’s director of public policy and government affairs.

In 2021, Harris earned his master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago. For the past decade and a half, he’s also been a lecturer at the U. of C. in public policy, where he teaches about policy in state and local governments, as well as race and policing in the U.S.

Harris said one of his goals of the office is a greater emphasis on alternatives to incarceration for crimes.

“When we look at restorative justice, we look at how community courts and community policing impact(s) communities and make them better,” he said. “So we’re going to move forward there.”

“I think that some of the healing happens when you have the offended sit with the offender, and the offender has to apologize,” he said.

If elected, he intends to carry on several things from Foxx’s tenure, albeit with some alterations.

“Kim Foxx has done things that have been nationally replicated, we’re gonna keep going with that,” he said, “But I’m forging my own path.”

Foxx’s tenure was defined by her work in the progressive prosecution movement, such as declining felony charges, including retail theft charges. Part of a national wave of elections of progressive prosecutors, she was elected in the wake of the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and the outrage over the police killing of Black people in the city.

In doing so, she frequently faced criticism from conservatives, police and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for her approach. She also received widespread criticism for her handling of the Jussie Smollet hate crime case.

During her seven years in office, she worked to overturn wrongful convictions, expunge cannabis crimes and shift the office’s focus to prosecuting violent crimes over lower-level felonies and misdemeanors. Foxx was also a proponent for the statewide elimination of cash bail.

Among things he wants to carry over from Foxx’s tenure are utilizing community courts over prosecution, which are aimed at young adults ages 18 to 26 who are charged with non-violent felony or misdemeanor crimes. The court resolves conflicts through restorative conferences and peace circles involving victims, family members, friends, community members and any others affected by the crime.

Harris said he also wants to maintain the office’s focus on overturning wrongful convictions and preserving Foxx’s approach to retail thefts.

In one of her first moves as state’s attorney in 2016, Foxx started charging retail thefts under $1,000 as misdemeanors rather than felonies. (Retail thefts of merchandise greater than $1,000 or by someone who had 10 prior felony convictions are still charged as felonies.)

“I don’t think stealing my phone is worth a felony that stops them from ever being a contributing member to society,” he said.“Not criminalizing poverty any more is also the right thing to do, because it’s made us safer.”

He said that “when appropriate” he will continue Foxx’s work to enroll first-time and nonviolent offenders in the county’s diversion programs, which provide an alternative to the criminal court process, such as a drug and alcohol treatment plan. He also wants the office to have a greater focus on juvenile justice, such as by strengthening partnerships with Chicago Public Schools and other Cook County school districts, as well as connecting “high-risk youth” with social services and other resources.

“What we want to do is rehabilitate, and to make sure we are stopping at the door of recidivism. And how we do that is through rehabilitation,” he said.

Noting an ongoing staffing shortage at the state’s attorney office, Harris said he wants to hire more assistant state’s attorneys and paralegals.

Regarding the relationship between civilians and the police, Harris said “We need to make sure that everyone knows we’re holding the police accountable for their actions, but also that we are working and we’re communicating with all law enforcement agencies, with our elected officials, with our appointed officials, our community stakeholders.”

Making this collaboration clear, he continued, is important “so that people know that we’re not pointing fingers at one another, that we’re trying to work to ensure the collective safety of the community is addressed.”

When it comes to progressive prosecuting, Harris said, “The issue is dealing with progressive issues, but doing it in an efficient, well-managed, well-mannered (way), fully understanding what we’re doing, why we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”

So far, Harris has been endorsed by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the County Democratic party, a number of federal, state and county representatives and aldermen.

Going into the March 19 primary, the one other Democrat running for office is Eileen O’Neill Burke, who served as an assistant state’s attorney for a decade and a defense lawyer, before winning a seat on the Cook County Circuit Court in 2008 and appellate court in 2016.

As of Dec. 4, O’Neill Burke has so far raised about $224,000, while Harris has raised about $174,000, according Illinois Sunshine.

Other candidates in the race include Robert W. Fioretti, an attorney and former Chicago alderman, and Andrew Charles Kopinski, an attorney.