Chicago mayoral candidate Zoe Ma focuses on alleviating poverty, inequality

Zoe Ma, the latest candidate to throw her hat into the Chicago mayoral race, will officially launch her campaign on Tuesday.

Ma's entry brings the total field of candidates to a dozen.

Ma describes herself as a progressive candidate who currently develops and manages affordable multi-family housing. She says her key campaign issues include increased budget transparency and accountability, homeowner and property tax reform, and tackling youth poverty.

On her website, Ma notes that she grew up in a working-class Muslim family in China in the 1970s and 1980s. She wrote that in the China of her childhood, "material poverty was widespread, yet opportunity often felt more equally distributed," with first-rate education.

The transition toward a market economy in China in the late 1980s changed that perception, Ma wrote, with economic reforms creating new opportunities, but also introducing  "visible inequality and corruption on a scale my generation had never experienced before." She wrote that she joined the Tianamen Square protests in Beijing in 1989 over those issues.

Ma arrived in Chicago in 1994 to attend graduate school, and wrote that she was quick to notice the profound inequality in the city.

I came to this country 30 years ago with only $40 in my pocket by myself, and I built this American dream in the city of Chicago," Ma said on CBS News Chicago on Tuesday morning. "I think that opportunity should be available to everyone in the city, and no, people in the South Side and West Side have not been able to benefit from it, and that's why I'm bringing my campaign to highlight this equal opportunity for everybody in the city of Chicago."

Ma touts a guaranteed income program as one of her top campaign priorities. On her campaign website, she wrote that such a program is not just about handing out money, but creating conditions that can lead to equal opportunity.

She pointed to a guaranteed income pilot program Chicago enacted in 2022 under Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

"It was a pilot program, but it showed, the study actually shows that it helped people stay in their house and help them to pay bills," Ma said.

But how would such a program be funded, particularly given the budget crisis the City of Chicago is facing? Ma said it boils down to spending priorities.

"You know, actually, Chicago's never short on money. It's about priority. Even if we find like 1,000 people for guaranteed income for a year, that's only $6 million — a drop in the bucket in the $16.6 billion," she said. "So there is just a priority over the people or the profit."

Ma was asked how she would stand out against Mayor Brandon Johnson — who has not yet announced whether he is running for a second term — and other candidates. She said she would emphasize how the South and West sides of the city remain neglected, while the city devotes resources to wealthier areas.

But other candidates talk about disinvestment in parts of the city too, as does Mayor Johnson — himself a West Side resident. Ma said she would stand out there by getting specific about where city funds can be invested for public needs.

"Well, you know, many of the candidates talk about it, but we have to look at the budget — where are we going to really invest the dollar? Let's follow the money," she said. "For example, we want to talk about affordable housing? Let's see how much money actually goes toward affordable housing, while we have $425 million could really help."

Ma was set to announce her campaign officially in Bronzeville on Tuesday.