Lyons Mayor Christopher Getty has announced he is running for Congress as an independent. Getty joins Chicago alderman Bryon Sigcho-Lopez, former Democratic Party operative Mayra Macias, and activist Lindsay Church in announcing that they are running as independents to challenge Jesus “Chuy” Garica’s handpicked successor Patty Garcia. The two Garcias are not related.
Getty, who has been the mayor of Lyons since 2009, announced his candidacy as an independent at his annual fundraising event which was held Feb. 26 at Gibsons restaurant in Oak Brook.
Chuy Garcia didn’t announce that he was not running for another term in Congress until after the filing period for the March 17 primary had passed although he told his then chief of staff Patty Garcia a few days before the close of the filing period that he was not going to run for another term. After Patty Garcia filed at the last minute to run in the Democratic primary Chuy Garica withdrew from the race leaving Patty Garcia as the only candidate on the ballot in Tuesday’s primary.
“Recently we saw our current congressman choose to bypass the democratic process handpicking his successor instead of allowing the voters to decide who gets to represent them,” Getty said in his approximately 10 minute long speech announcing his candidacy at his fundraiser. “No open debate, no real choice for the people. That’s not how democracy is supposed to work. Representation is earned, not inherited. Leadership should be accountable and the people should always have the final say. We deserve better.”
Getty, who also serves as the Township Supervisor in Lyons Township, portrayed himself as an outsider.
“This congressional seat does not belong to insiders, it belongs to the people,” Getty told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.
To get on the November ballot as an independent requires submitting 10,816 valid signatures on nominating petitions from registered voters in the 4th District to the Illinois State Board of Elections by May 26, not an easy task.
“Running as an independent takes courage, it takes an organization, it takes resources, it takes all of us,” Getty said. “They may have thought they could take this choice away from us, they may have thought this election was already decided but they underestimated this community and they underestimate the strength in this room.”
Getty said he and voters are fed up with the dysfunction and partisan squabbling in Washington, D.C.
“I’m running as an independent because this moment demands an independent voice,” Getty said. “I don’t answer to a party, I answer to the people. I’m running because our country faces serious challenges: rising costs, immigration and public safety concerns, economic uncertainty and a political system that feels increasingly disconnected from reality. We don’t need more partisan talking points, we don’t need more backroom deals. We need leaders who unite us and put the people first.”
Getty was elected mayor of Lyons for the first time in 2009 when he was only 26 years old. In his speech last month Getty said that he was then the youngest person elected mayor in Illinois. Getty has led a powerful political organization in Lyons since becoming mayor dominating village government and taking control of the Lyons Elementary School District 103 Board of Education. His father, the late Ken Getty, had also been the mayor of Lyons in the 1990s. In 1998 Ken Getty Sr. was convicted of mail fraud in a bid rigging scheme and sentenced to 66 months in prison. Ken Getty Sr. always proclaimed his innocence and after his father got out of federal prison Chris Getty appointed his father to the Lyons Zoning Board. Ken Getty Sr. died in 2025.
Getty could have a powerful ally if Steve Landek, the mayor of Bridgeview and the Lyons Democratic Committeeman from Lyons Township, decides to support him. Landek did not return a phone call or text message asking him if he was going to support Getty’s campaign for Congress.
Getty’s time as mayor has not been without controversy. In 2019 FBI agents raided the Lyons Village Hall as well as the offices of Getty Insurance which was run by Chris Getty and his late father. No charges were ever filed against Chris Getty or anyone in Lyons as a result of the raids.
Getty said he would focus on issues in his campaign for Congress.
“This campaign is not about tearing anyone down; this campaign is about lifting this district up.” Getty said.
After 17 years as mayor he said that he is now ready to heed calls to run for higher office.
“This is our moment, this is our movement; our time is now,” Getty said.
Macias grew up in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago and graduated from Yale University in 2010. She spent her first two years after graduating from Yale as a Teach for America Middle School teacher. Since then Macias has worked in politics first as a field organizer in Florida for Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012. She went on to work for the Florida Democratic Party and the Latino Victory Project and also worked on the unsuccessful Kamala Harris presidential campaign in 2024. She has also worked for Building Back Together, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and political agenda of the Biden administration.
Sigcho-Lopez is a Democratic Socialist who is the alderman for Chicago’s 25th ward located on the near west side of the city. Sigcho-Lopez, like Getty and the other independent candidates, has expressed outrage over the way that Chuy Garcia withdrew from the race to give Patty Garcia a free ride in the Democratic primary.
“It sends a bad message to our constituents, to the city, something like this, especially by someone who portrayed himself as a progressive and a reformer, this doesn’t speak to those values,” Sigcho-Lopez told the Landmark a few months ago when he was exploring running as an independent. “We want to make sure people know that as progressives, people committed to public service, that we don’t stand by that.”
Church, who lives in Berwyn with her wife and child, is described on her campaign web site as veteran, non-profit executive, and a LBGTQ+ leader. She served in the Navy as a Persian-Farsi linguist. After leaving the Navy she earned a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies and International Relations from the University of Washington. She is the co-founder and executive director of Minority Veterans for America.