Sharon Fairley, '06: Announces Run for Illinois Attorney General
Fairley formally runs for attorney general post to replace Lisa Madigan
The former head of Chicago’s new police oversight agency formally declared her candidacy for Illinois attorney general on Tuesday, joining a growing field seeking the Democratic nomination in March.
Sharon Fairley said her background as a former prosecutor at the state and federal levels, her work on police oversight and in Chicago’s inspector general office and being an African-American mother have helped to give her a “unique” skill set apart from rival candidates.
While she vowed to take on corruption and fight for changes in the criminal justice system, Fairley also said she views the office of the state’s top legal officer as one having a national role in response to Republican President Donald Trump. She said Illinois and the county are in “unprecedented peril.”
“Today, our civil rights are under siege. Our next attorney general must defend our people and our local governments against the Trump administration’s regressive and unconstitutional attacks,” she said in announcing her candidacy at a downtown law office.
“We must defend the very rights that our grandparents and parents fought for — the right to vote, the right to earn a decent living, to be able to travel our streets without being stopped by police unnecessarily. We must fight for affordable health care and the right to be safe in our own homes,” she said.
Fairley most recently served as chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, a new agency resulting from the furor over the release of a video showing a white police officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Read more at Chicago Tribune