Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Wednesday she’ll give up her statewide office as she considers her “next biggest challenge” — which sure sounds like a potential challenge to incumbent Mayor Brandon Johnson for control of the fifth floor of Chicago City Hall.

Mendoza said she’ll take a “thank-you tour” after three terms as the state’s chief financial officer before she decides whether to throw her hat in the 2027 ring against Johnson, who has left the city “in dire need of competency,” by her own estimation.

“I don’t think any challenge is too big. Certainly, I’d love to see the city succeeding right now instead of failing,” Mendoza said during a press conference at Los Comales Restaurant in Little Village. “I would love that. And I have reached out on many occasions not just to this administration in the city, but the prior one, offering help, and, you know, they don’t take it.”

Since Johnson took office in 2023, Mendoza has telegraphed her mayoral ambitions with a steady stream of social media statements criticizing many of his progressive policies, while positioning herself as a centrist, pro-police Democrat.

She took passing shots at Johnson Wednesday for his handling of public safety, Chicago Public Schools and mass transit, but lit him up for a lack of “economic growth” under his watch.

“Take a look downtown, count how many cranes, maybe five… Back in 2019, we had 65 cranes in the city of Chicago,” Mendoza said.

“You’ve heard of me be very vocal, and I have to be very vocal because in my role as the state’s chief financial officer, whatever happens to our state’s economic engine — which unequally is Chicago — if our economic engine is sputtering, then no matter how hard of a job and how great of a job my team and I are doing or the Legislature or the other statewide constitutionals, the governor, you name it — no matter how hard we’re working, it complicates matters. The state of Illinois cannot be successful when the city of Chicago is failing,” she said. “So it is a concern.”

A protege of convicted ex-Ald. Ed Burke, Mendoza served as a state representative for 10 years before being elected Chicago city clerk in 2011.

She won her first statewide comptroller campaign in 2016 and made her first run for mayor in 2019, finishing fifth in a crowded first round of voting that blocked her out of the runoff won by Lori Lightfoot.

Despite that loss, Mendoza cruised to statewide reelection twice.

“You actually learn more in this line of work when you fail than when you win every time,” she said. “It made me stronger and I’m very actually appreciative at that opportunity and to know what it’s like to walk in those shoes and know how I would do things differently.”

Mendoza’s campaign committee raised $84,525.18 between the beginning of April and the end of June, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

That’s a smaller quarterly haul than other potential mayoral challengers, including Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who raised more than $1 million. Ald. Bill Conway (34th) raised $203,110.

Johnson, who often remarks about wanting to be the longest-tenured mayor in Chicago history, raised $106,159.27.

Mendoza said she has “a very strong ability to raise funds,” and suggested any seeker of statewide office “should be fully dedicated” to serving out a four year term. Giannoulias is seeking reelection as secretary of state.

Mendoza’s announcement that she’s stepping down as the state’s chief financial officer gives Illinois Democrats a tighter window to line up for the March 17, 2026, primary. The Cook County Democratic Party will slate its endorsed candidates later this week.