Isaiah White
Isaiah White (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Cook County Board of Commissioners to represent District 12 in Illinois. White was on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2026.[source]
Elections
2026
See also: Municipal elections in Cook County, Illinois (2026)
General election
The primary occurred on March 17, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Cook County Board of Commissioners District 12
Xiaoli Hu (R) is running in the general election for Cook County Board of Commissioners District 12 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Xiaoli Hu (R) | |
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for Cook County Board of Commissioners District 12
Elizabeth Granato (D), Isaiah White (D), and José Wilson (D) ran in the Democratic primary for Cook County Board of Commissioners District 12 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Elizabeth Granato | |
 | Isaiah White | |
 | José Wilson | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Rob Moon (D)
- Catherine Sharp (D)
Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for Cook County Board of Commissioners District 12
Xiaoli Hu (R) advanced from the Republican primary for Cook County Board of Commissioners District 12 on March 17, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Xiaoli Hu |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
White received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
- Abundant Housing Illinois
- Personal PAC
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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Campaign website
White's campaign website stated the following:
In Chicago, life is expensive; housing, taxes, groceries, childcare, the list goes on and on. Isaiah is running to end the cost of living crisis. He will cut wasteful spending and reform the county government so that we get more value for our tax dollars while building programs that effectively provide services for those of us just struggling to get by. He will reduce regulatory barriers for businesses – it shouldn’t take 8 months to get approval to open a family restaurant – and for the construction of affordable housing. Isaiah is committed to a balanced budget and generous social services; building a government that works will be his mission everyday.
Property Taxes:
Property taxes in Cook County are burdensome, particularly for those with lower incomes. Nobody should be pushed from their homes and neither should businesses close because their taxes are unaffordable. Isaiah will create a fair property tax system where we fund the government we want while keeping people in their homes and their businesses alive.
Isaiah will:
- Reject property tax increases and cut them when feasible: By holding the line on tax increases we can reduce the cost of living for families already struggling with the cost of living. Isaiah will not vote to increase property taxes and he will vote to reduce them when the County again has a surplus.
- Simplify the property tax appeal process: If you are paying more than your neighbor with an identical house, you should not have to hire a lawyer to appeal your property taxes.
- Implement a property tax circuit breaker: Nobody should be forced from their home because their property taxes have grown faster than their income and nobody should pay more than 8% of their income in property taxes.
- Grow the tax base by facilitating market-rate and affordable housing development: The County must do more to facilitate the construction of market rate and affordable housing. The more we grow our base the less we all individually pay. This is particularly true in Cook County where the Board decides how much tax the government wants to raise and then moves backwards to determine the percent of assessed value that each property owes.
- Cut sales and use taxes: Here in Chicago we pay some of the highest sales taxes in the country. (If you are purchasing food or goods in and around the Navy Pier, you pay the highest sales tax rate in the nation.) When the County next has a surplus, Isaiah commits to using some of that revenue to lower the County’s sales tax.
Public Safety:
The provision of safety is a critical role of Cook County government. From a well-staffed Sheriff’s office, fair courts, an effective state’s attorney and public defender’s office, to a humane and rehabilitation focused jail all parts of the county’s justice system have to work together to keep people safe and do justice.
Isaiah will:
- Hire more sheriff’s deputies: The sheriff’s office is deeply understaffed for the work we ask of it. It’s time to change that. More sheriff’s deputies will allow us to deliver more safety.
- Increase police presence on the L: It’s time for the County to take an active role in solving the CTA’s safety problem. Isaiah will direct additional funding to hire more sheriff’s deputies to patrol the system. He will also seek to better enforce rules against smoking, disorderly conduct and fare evasion.
- Increase staffing in the sheriff’s criminal investigation division: Cook County has dangerously low clearance rates for property and violent crimes. There are many people who offend who we don’t catch. By increasing the capacity of the Sheriff’s office to find perpetrators we can deter crime and keep offenders off the streets.
- Reform the County’s electronic monitoring system: The County’s electronic monitoring system neither protects our communities nor provides an effective alternative to incarceration. Isaiah will embark on a soup-to-nuts reform that prioritizes the safety of our communities.
- Increase staffing for the public defenders office: Just like we don’t want criminals walking free we don’t want innocent people going to jail. Justice requires an adversarial system and that means providing prosecutors with the resources they need to prove guilt and public defenders with the resources to prove innocence.
- Provide evidence-based rehabilitation programs and more humane conditions for the incarcerated: We should be giving former offenders every tool possible to turn their lives around. The last thing we want is for them to re-offend.
- Enforce laws against dirt bikes on public streets: We’ve all seen the caravans of hundreds of dirtbikes running red lights, endangering pedestrians, and producing deafening noise. Isaiah will direct the sheriff’s office to enforce our laws prohibiting such vehicles on public roads.
- Install noise cameras: Vehicles with modified mufflers disturb the peace, make it hard to sleep, and reduce quality of life in our neighborhoods. Other cities, like New York, have effectively eliminated this scourge by fining the owners of modified vehicles. Cook County should do the same, it’s time to restore peace and quiet.
Fiscal Responsibility:
Illinois is not known for being a fiscally well-managed state. From poor bond ratings, to high levels of pension debt, and the consistent approval of unpaid for pension sweeteners. We seem to prefer to dig the debt hole deeper more than we like climbing out. Isaiah will not continue with the status quo. For him, fiscal responsibility comes first.
Isaiah will:
- Reject unbalanced budgets: Isaiah will never vote for a budget that isn’t balanced or that relies on debt. Cook County already carries roughly 21 billion in debt (pension, bond, etc) – this is ~210% more than the County’s annual budget. We have to stop adding to the pile.
- Vote against pension holidays: Isaiah will never vote for a pension holiday. We must do all we can not to make our pension situation worse.
- Cut wasteful spending: From $8 LED light bulbs to building construction projects that come in far over budget, Cook County wastes plenty of taxpayer money. It’s time for us to start trimming this fat. The more we waste the less we can do for those who need help the most.
- Support advance pension payments: The earlier we pay into our pension funds the longer the money has to earn interest and grow. Isaiah will fight to pay our pensions now so we can pay less for them later.
Human Centered Social Services:
We take for granted that navigating government programs is hard. From property tax appeals, to finding a provider in CountyCare, to getting a permit, our interactions with the government are often slow, challenging to understand, and burdensome to navigate. The government doesn’t have to be this way. Isaiah will work everyday to build a Cook County government where services can be accessed digitally, applications are simple, requirements are rational, and lines in offices are non-existent.
Isaiah will:
- Reduce county office wait times: Nobody should have to wait more than a few minutes to speak to a real person at a county office and someone certainly shouldn’t have to wait all day to be seen.
- Reform the provision of County social services so that recipients can easily apply for, navigate, and access the programs they are entitled to: The harder a program is to navigate and apply for the smaller the number of people who will be served by the program. In the case of CountyCare health insurance and other services the consequences of high access burdens can be fatal.
- Digitize all County services: If the program can be administered digitally it should be administered digitally. Whenever possible individuals should be able to opt to make fewer trips to County office buildings.
Ethics and Open Government:
Chicago has a long history of corruption and government for the few and well-connected. Cook County has been and continues to be a particularly bad offender in this respect. Isaiah will re-write County ethics rules from the bottom up to ensure that elected officials are working for the voters first and only.
Isaiah will:
- Implement a ban on outside employment: County commissioners should be focused on one thing and one thing alone: their constituents and their government obligations. County Commissioners make 100k; there is no need for any commissioner to hold an outside job.
- Increase income reporting requirements for County Commissioners: Today we don’t know what our commissioners make, where they get their money or if outside income creates financial conflicts. By requiring more reporting we can discourage bad behavior on the parts of our elected officials.
- Strengthen recusal requirements: Commissioners should be required to recuse when they have a financial interest in the Board’s actions, when they receive contributions from individuals with particular interest in a Board action, or when they are approving a contract for their outside employer.
- Require the County Courts to comply with the state Freedom of Information Act: In Cook County our courts aren’t just courts; they are program administrators. From the Public Guardian which provides lawyers for abused and neglected children, to the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, to the Adult Probation Electronic Monitoring Program, the Courts administer programs that have a deep impact on individual’s lives and our safety as a County. Information pertaining to the efficacy of these programs should be public, not secret.
Public Transportation:
As a daily CTA rider, Isaiah understands where our public transportation system excels and where it falls short. His vision is for a safe, fast, and reliable system. Building a better system isn’t rocket science. Other cities have done it; so can Chicago. We deserve a world class system and Isaiah will make it a reality.
Isaiah will:
- Introduce transit ambassadors: Isaiah will use LA’s and Seattle’s transit ambassador program as a model to increase safety for riders and deliver critical services to the unhoused.
- Reduce the sound pollution caused by CTA trains: By increasing the frequency that CTA grinds its rails and moving to continuously welded track, we can reduce sound by 40-60%. For people living near elevated tracks this can make a huge difference.
- Raise CTA’s cleanliness standards: We’ve all been there—we’re getting on the train at the beginning of our journey and we encounter a train car strewn with refuse, unknown liquids, or worse. Other systems around the country have managed to keep their systems clean, and we can too.
- Fix the slow zones: Ever been on a train that is trundling along at a snail’s pace? More often than not that is because you are on the 20% of tracks in the system that, because of poor maintenance, have speed limits 25% – 80% below what they should. Isaiah will fix the slow zones. It isn’t wild to think that this is possible. We did it under Mayor Rahm Emmanual and Boston eliminated every slow zone on their system last year.
- Reduce ambient noise at highway median train stations: Particularly at the highway median stations of Jefferson Park, Montrose, and Irving Park ambient sound can exceed 100 decibels. This is a level unsafe for long-term exposure. Isaiah will erect sound barriers, similar to what is done in DC and LA, to reduce sound levels.
- Integrate fair payment systems across CTA, Metra, and PACE: When you buy a 30 day unlimited pass, you should be able to use any of the three systems, within the City of Chicago, with that same pass. Isaiah will push the transit boards to finally work together and create a truly integrated system.
- Transform Metra into an electric regional rail system: Metra is an expansive system; with proper investment in electrification and modern train sets, it could be made into a true regional rail system with 15 minute frequencies, like the Spanish Cercanías or the German S-Bahn. We are a world class city—we deserve a functioning transit system.
- Build Metra stations at Diversy on the UP-N & NW lines: For less than $20 million we can revolutionize public transit access for more than 30k residents in Roscoe Village and Avondale. It’s time for both neighborhoods to have a single seat ride downtown.
- Extend the Brown Line to O’Hare: For the cost of ⅕ the Red Line extension, we could extend the Brown Line to Jefferson Park and out to O’Hare. In the best universe, this makes a trip to the airport a single train ride away for half of the north side. No more expensive Ubers, no more traffic, just a quick train ride to the Airport.
Improving Government Procurement:
We’ve all seen it, we’ve all heard of it: an infrastructure project coming at 2x the original cost, the Tyler Technologies contract getting finished years late and significantly over budget, $8 LED light bulbs that you can find for less than a dollar on Amazon. The County, like many other units of government in Illinois, has a procurement problem. It’s time to bring the spirit of economization back to the government. We should expect costs similar to the private sector and for projects to be delivered on time and on budget. Isaiah will reform the County’s procurement apparatus and will stretch every public dollar as far as it will possibly go.
Isaiah will:
- Benchmark public procurement to private sector costs: We should always be looking to the private sector to tell us if we are overpaying. Does the cost of the affordable housing complex we are funding match what we would expect to see a private developer pay? If not, how can we rebuild the project’s requirements to lower its cost? Only by understanding when we are overpaying can we hope to pay less.
- Increase competition in contracting: One or two bidders on each project is not sufficient, neither is six. Only with cut-throat competition can we seek to drive down costs.
- Cut project requirements that drive up costs: When we layer requirements on top of requirements, projects increase in price. Do we need custom cut windows? How about a giant glass canopy? Sometimes the added cost of an additional project requirement isn’t worth the marginal benefit of having the additional feature. Isaiah will constantly re-evaluate whether by changing our requirements we can drive costs lower and free up money for other critical priorities.
- Fight patronage, self-dealing, and sweetheart deals: Sometimes it’s just corruption. Isaiah will push for open and competitive procurement and will always fight back against those that would use public dollars to enrich themselves. Isaiah will empower the County inspector general and better staff the public corruption division at the State’s Attorney’s office.
- Hold underperforming contractors accountable: If a contractor underperforms, the government shouldn’t be left holding the bag. By building strong and enforceable standards into contracts, Isaiah will seek to hold contractors accountable for cost-overruns that are within their control.
Quality of Life:
Small efforts to improve quality of life in our neighborhoods can reap big rewards. Isaiah will be laser focused on making our communities more livable, more pleasant, and more welcoming. Isaiah will bring back the City Beautiful and make Chicago, once again, the City in a Garden.
Isaiah will:
- Plant two million trees: This isn’t just about the environment, it’s about making our blocks more beautiful, happy spaces to be in. Which would you choose to do? Take a stroll on Cicero or Menomonee St.? Probably Menomonee. Block by block we can reconstruct the City Beautiful.
- Convert abandoned rail rights-of-way to linear parks: Every neighborhood deserves its own 606. If there is an abandoned rail right-of-way already in city or county ownership we should invest in making them spaces for which people would make a trip across the city.
- Install noise cameras: Vehicles with modified mufflers disturb the peace, make it hard to sleep, and reduce quality of life in our neighborhoods. Other cities, like New York, have effectively eliminated this scourge by fining the owners of modified vehicles. Cook County should do the same, it’s time to restore peace and quiet.
- Enforce laws against dirt bikes on public streets: We’ve all seen the caravans of hundreds of dirtbikes running red lights, endangering pedestrians, and producing deafening noise. Isaiah will direct the sheriff’s office to enforce our laws prohibiting such vehicles on public roads.
- Expand sidewalk dining: Who doesn’t love a sidewalk cafe? Isaiah will permit sidewalk cafes on County roads.
- Lengthen crossing times: Our elderly neighbors often struggle to cross streets before the lights change. Isaiah will lengthen the crossing cycles to allow our neighbors to safely make it across the street.
- Transform underutilized public land into parks: The County is sitting on vast land holdings that are lying fallow. It’s time to put them to good use by transforming them into neighborhood pocket parks.
- Install sidewalk benches: Sometimes on a stroll one just wants to sit and take a break. Across Europe sidewalk benches are common – they should be common in Chicago too.
— Isaiah White's campaign website (March 5, 2026)
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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