Just a few days into her mayoral campaign, Susana Mendoza has decided it’s time for smash-mouth football over Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Chicago Bears stadium negotiations.
On Friday, June 5, the Bears officially advanced plans for a new home in Indiana, angering millions of Bears fans. Mendoza seized the opportunity to blitz the mayor.
“The Chicago Bears Board of Directors has voted to advance stadium development in Hammond, Indiana. That it has come to this is yet another major failure from a mayoral administration that has chased business, jobs and revenue out of Chicago,” Mendoza said in a statement.
For Mendoza, the Bears’ move isn’t just about playing football in Chicago. The loss of one of the NFL’s cornerstone franchises fits into the broader narrative she intends to build since announcing her mayoral bid on June 3: Chicago is paying the price for Johnson’s incompetence.
“City Hall didn’t have a plan, and this is the result,” she said, invoking the phrase that may become her campaign’s calling card — a “Blizzard of Incompetence” — one she argues has left families squeezed by rising rents and property taxes, small businesses gasping for air, and now, apparently, the city’s most beloved and iconic sports franchise heading for the Hoosier State after 105 years in Chicago.
Johnson’s office released a statement suggesting the team’s “announcement is not surprising” and that a move isn’t final.
“Without a final site selection, until we see shovels in the ground in Hammond, the City will continue to engage in discussions grounded in the interests of our residents,” Johnson said.
Mendoza acknowledged “there are still negotiations to be had” and they “should be advanced with urgency,” but the damage, in her telling, is done. The Bears didn’t just wake up one morning and decide Hammond looked nice. They got here, Johnson’s critics claim, because City Hall fumbled the ball repeatedly.
The Bears themselves are framing their potential move as transformative — a “world-class stadium project” that would “bring Chicagoland together.”
The Village of Arlington Heights in the northwest suburbs has also been vying to be the new home of the Bears. Recently, McCook in the south suburbs has been trying to get the attention of Bears leadership.
For Mendoza, who served as Chicago City Clerk before becoming Illinois Comptroller — the first Latina elected to statewide office in Illinois — the Bears stadium situation fits into her larger argument: she knows how to manage big, complex operations. Johnson, by her account, does not.
She’s not alone in the race. Congressman Mike Quigley and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas are also running, with Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias rumored to be considering a bid. Johnson hasn’t said whether he will seek re-election.
The mayoral election is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2027 — nine days after the Super Bowl.