Matt Martin

Matt is a lifelong progressive, who is serving his first term on the Chicago City Council. Before that, he worked as a civil rights lawyer in the Illinois Attorney General's Office, where he focused on police reform, workers' rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, and immigration. Through his work, he helped draft the consent decree to hold the city accountable when it comes to reforming the police department. He also worked on the front lines fighting back against Donald Trump’s disastrous immigration and health care policies.

Matt attended college at Northwestern University, earning degrees in political science and jazz studies. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. As alderman, Matt believes it is critical to be independent, transparent, and willing to take on big challenges. He has successfully advocated to double the number of affordable units in large developments throughout Chicago and passed a law that legalized the building of new basement apartments and coach houses. In addition, Matt led the fight to triple the amount of funding for domestic violence prevention and increased Chicago’s violence prevention budget by $45 million. He also passed a resolution declaring a climate emergency in Chicago, which helped pave the way for legislation to grow the city’s tree canopy by 75,000 trees and expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure. He has done all this work by engaging community organizations and listening to the voices from across the 47th Ward.