Former state representative and deputy governor says his South Side roots, government experience and commitment to representation shape his bid for Illinois lieutenant governor

“I am that Black guy from the South Side of Chicago” is something Christian Mitchell says without hesitation.

For the former state representative and deputy governor now seeking to become Illinois’ next lieutenant governor, the declaration is about more than geography. It is Mitchell’s way of explaining who he is, the communities that shaped him and the perspective he says he has carried into rooms where some of Illinois’ biggest decisions were being made — often without most voters knowing his name or realizing he was there.

That may be one of the more revealing aspects of Mitchell’s political story.

Long before his name appeared alongside Gov. JB Pritzker’s on a statewide ticket, Mitchell spent years working in positions that could influence public policy without necessarily putting him in front of television cameras.

Now, he is stepping from behind the machinery of government and asking Illinois voters to elect him to one of the state’s highest offices.

During a Sept. 15 interview with the Chicago Crusader, Mitchell talked about his journey, his connection to Black Chicago, his years working inside government and the frustration of Black voters who sometimes question whether their political loyalty has produced enough in return.

Mitchell grew up in Chicago’s western suburbs, including Maywood and Westchester, and was raised by his mother, Deb Gist, and his grandparents.

His mother was a neonatal intensive care nurse at Rush Medical Center, while his grandfather was a union steelworker, Korean War veteran and church elder.

His family’s middle-class stability was shaken by medical and other financial pressures, including his mother’s battle with breast cancer. Mitchell has said that watching his mother face mounting medical bills helped turn public policy from an abstraction into something personal.

He attended the University of Chicago, graduating in 2008, and the South Side increasingly became the center of his adult and professional life.

After college, Mitchell became a community organizer with Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, or SOUL, working on issues that included education funding, affordable housing and economic opportunity.

At 25, Mitchell ran for the Illinois House of Representatives. He represented the 26th District from 2013 until 2019, serving a geographically and economically diverse district that included parts of Bronzeville, Hyde Park, South Shore, Streeterville and the Gold Coast.

Education funding became one focus of his legislative career.

But some of Mitchell’s most consequential work came after he left elected office.

When Pritzker took office in 2019, Mitchell became deputy governor for public safety, energy and infrastructure. In that role, he managed major state agencies and worked on complex statewide initiatives involving transportation, infrastructure, energy and public safety.

His portfolio included work connected to Rebuild Illinois, the state’s roughly $45 billion capital program, which funded investments in transportation, public facilities, universities, broadband and other infrastructure across Illinois.

Mitchell was also involved in the administration’s work surrounding the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, or CEJA.

As deputy governor, Mitchell had responsibility for the energy portfolio within the administration and participated in negotiations that helped produce the sweeping 2021 energy law. CEJA itself emerged from negotiations involving the governor’s administration, lawmakers, organized labor, environmental advocates, utilities and other stakeholders.

That history is important to understanding why Mitchell sees the lieutenant governor’s office differently from the deputy governor’s job he once held.

A deputy governor is appointed and works directly within a governor’s administration. The governor determines a deputy governor’s portfolio, which can include oversight and coordination involving major agencies and policy initiatives.

A deputy governor can therefore wield substantial influence while remaining largely unknown to the public.

The lieutenant governor, by contrast, is an elected constitutional officer. The governor and lieutenant governor run together on a statewide ticket, and the lieutenant governor is first in the line of succession to the governor. Illinois law and the state constitution establish responsibilities for the office, while the governor may delegate additional duties.

For Mitchell, moving from deputy governor to lieutenant governor would mean moving from an influential appointed position inside the administration to an office carrying a statewide electoral mandate.

Mitchell also believes something else mattered when he was deputy governor: who was sitting at the table when decisions were made.

That became particularly significant when the Crusader asked him about Black political disillusionment.

Some Black voters have questioned whether decades of reliable support for Democratic candidates have produced comparable improvements in their neighborhoods, schools, businesses and household finances.

Mitchell did not dismiss that frustration.

“I think that frustration is justified,” he said.

He specifically pointed to Black women, whom he described as the Democratic Party’s most reliable voting bloc.

Mitchell said he would not attempt to answer for the entire Democratic Party. Instead, he pointed to his experience in the Pritzker administration and to Black officials holding positions with authority over areas of government controlling substantial resources.

“I was deputy governor,” Mitchell said, noting that his responsibilities were not limited to human services agencies often associated with Black political leadership.

He described working in areas involving transportation, energy and other agencies where decisions could affect billions of dollars in public spending and investment.

Mitchell said he entered those rooms carrying the experiences of “a Black man living on the South Side who grew up in the west suburbs of Chicago.”

He recalled Pritzker asking during policy discussions what various initiatives would mean for communities that historically had been excluded from opportunity.

“Jobs. Contracts, access to opportunity,” Mitchell said. “What are we going to do to make that better?”

For Mitchell, that is part of the argument for representation in government: not simply having Black people in public positions, but ensuring people with those experiences are participating when consequential decisions involving money, contracts and economic opportunity are made.

He does not claim Democrats have answered every concern.

“Is the Democratic Party perfect? No. Are JB and I perfect? No,” Mitchell said.

He nevertheless drew a sharp partisan contrast, criticizing Republican positions on voting rights and federal programs including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Those comments reflected Mitchell’s argument for his party and ticket, but his acknowledgment of dissatisfaction among some Black voters was equally direct.

Mitchell’s effort to bridge different constituencies also extends beyond politics.

Inspired by his grandfather’s military service, Mitchell joined the Illinois Air National Guard in 2023. He now serves as a captain and judge advocate with the 182nd Airlift Wing.

His Guard service, he said, regularly puts him alongside people who may see politics, religion and life very differently.

“I’m talking to people and dealing with people in the Guard who very much don’t vote like me, think like me, pray like me,” Mitchell said. “But we get together, we get the job done.”

He said that experience influences how he thinks about serving an entire state.

“You don’t have to agree with me or even like me,” Mitchell said. “If I’m fortunate enough to win and become your lieutenant governor, I’m gonna wake up every single day thinking about what I can do to make your life better.”

For all the statewide language, however, Mitchell repeatedly returned during the Crusader interview to the communities he calls home.

He has lived for years in Hyde Park and Bronzeville and said he bought a condominium in Bronzeville about five years ago. He talked about walking to Dunbar Park and 31st Street Beach.

“I chose to live in my community because I’m so proud of who I am and of what we represent,” Mitchell said.

On the day of the Crusader interview, Mitchell had returned to his grandfather’s former home in Maywood.

He said he became emotional because he had not been there in about 25 years.

“I’ve never forgotten where I’ve come from, and I’m not going to,” he said.

His closest mentors, friends and neighbors remain part of that connection. Mitchell recalled recently doing another interview at a Black-owned sandwich shop near his Bronzeville home.

“Those are my people,” he said.

But Mitchell added that those roots do not define the limits of whom he believes he must serve.

“I represent everybody,” Mitchell said. “I am proud to work for everybody in Illinois, no matter what race you are, or gender, or sexual orientation, or how you pray.”

Still, he returned to the history that made his own candidacy possible.

“I know where I’m from. I know who sacrificed for me,” Mitchell said. “I know who literally laid down in front of fire hoses and dogs so that I could have the chance to be the second Black lieutenant governor of the state of Illinois.”

For a politician who spent some of his most consequential years working behind the scenes, this campaign places Mitchell somewhere different.

His name is now before voters. His record is open to examination. And Illinoisans who may never have known the role he played inside state government are being asked to decide whether he should return to Springfield with an elected statewide mandate.

Mitchell appears determined that as voters learn his name, they also understand where he came from.

“That’s not a lesson I’m going to forget anytime soon,” Mitchell said. “I take that very seriously.”