City Council members voted to add Cook County Commissioner Anthony Quezada to their ranks Monday, approving the first aldermanic appointment of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s tenure — but not without an unusually large show of opposition for an administration’s pick to fill a vacancy.
Quezada’s lukewarm welcome to the chamber as 35th Ward alderperson came by a 32-11 vote, following debate over his use of the N-word in a social media post more than a decade ago when he was in high school.
Several of Quezada’s new colleagues also questioned whether the 29-year-old newcomer — the chamber’s youngest — should inherit the influential committee assignments left by former Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa, who stepped down last month to take over as superintendent of the Chicago Park District.
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But Quezada’s confirmation to represent several Northwest Side neighborhoods including Logan Square, Avondale and Hermosa was never seriously in doubt.
“To my colleagues, I look forward to building meaningful relationships and collaborating to meet our community’s diverse needs,” Quezada said after being sworn in at a special Council meeting. “To the people of the 35th Ward: know that I will be an alderman who listens, organizes and governs alongside you.”
“And to my fellow Chicagoans: at this moment, now more than ever, we need to stand shoulder to shoulder, rooted in solidarity,” Quezada said.
Quezada will vacate his commissioner seat midway through a first term that made him the County Board’s first openly gay Latino member. In 2022, he defeated incumbent Luis Arroyo Jr. in a five-way Democratic primary, then spent six months serving alongside Johnson before Johnson ascended to the fifth floor of City Hall.
Quezada, a Logan Square native and Lane Tech High College Prep grad, previously worked as Ramirez-Rosa’s neighborhood services director and immediately emerged as the most likely pick to replace him. Chicago mayors typically defer to retiring City Council members on selecting their replacements.
Johnson denied that a committee to screen six applicants for the appointment served merely as a rubber stamp, defending the screening on Monday as “one of the most robust processes that we’ve seen.” But multiple sources have told the Sun-Times that Quezada was Ramirez-Rosa’s pick.
Quezada’s use of the N-word in a 2014 tweet drove much of the discussion at Monday’s meeting. He previously deleted and apologized “for making that mistake as a high school student and take full responsibility for my tweet,” saying the use of the slur as a teen “does not reflect my values or character.”
The wording of an earlier apology from Quezada for “putting this in writing” wasn’t enough for 17th Ward Ald. David Moore.
“If I go and have an affair with Beyoncé, and Jay-Z comes in and shoots me in my behind, what I’m gonna say is, ‘I regret I was in that hotel room with Beyoncé.’ But you wouldn’t hear me say ‘I’m sorry for having an affair with Beyonce,’” Moore said. “There’s a difference between having regret for writing something and being truly sorry for saying something that can hurt a lot of people within our community.”
Quezada met privately with the Council’s Black Caucus in the weeks leading up the confirmation to address the issue. Several Black Council members who spoke at Monday’s meeting said they were satisfied with what they heard.
“I think that this is a really, really personal teachable moment that a lot of us need to just hold space for,” said 46th Ward Ald. Angela Clay. “This word still carries immense trauma in the black community.
“I really want to use this as an opportunity not to bash you for making some mistakes. … The point is to use this moment to say, ‘I am coming with open arms, I’m coming with working hands, to bridge the gap between our communities.”
Moore was part of the bloc voting against Quezada’s appointment that mostly included regular opponents of Johnson: Alds. Brian Hopkins (2nd), Desmond Yancy (5th), Anthony Beale (9th), Ray Lopez (15th), Silvana Tabares (23rd), Felix Cardona (31st), Gilbert Villegas (36th), Brendan Reilly (42nd), Jim Gardiner (45th) and Debra Silverstein (50th).
Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed four people to fill Council vacancies during her term; each received unanimous or near unanimous approval.
Quezada seemed unfazed by his detractors.
“This is not a personal matter. There are a lot of tensions right now everywhere, and we have to make sure that we’re working together, that we’re bringing people together. That is the work that I’ve done as a legislator, as a community organizer and as a leader in my community, and that’s the kind of skills and experience that I plan on bringing,” he said.
Quezada’s appointment gives him a leg up in 2027, when he has said he will seek election to a full term.
Ramirez-Rosa holds the largest weighted Democratic committee vote to choose Quezada’s County Board successor.
