Learn more about Susana Mendoza
From her earning All-State and All-Midwest honors in high school varsity soccer to becoming the first Hispanic independently elected to statewide office, learn more about Susana Mendoza and her passion for family, public service, and fighting for what she believes in.
AS ILLINOIS COMPTROLLER
Susana A. Mendoza was elected Illinois Comptroller on November 8, 2016 and sworn into office on Dec. 05, 2016. She is the first Hispanic independently elected to statewide office in Illinois.
As Comptroller, Mendoza led a transparency revolution because she believes that taxpayers deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent. She fought for and passed, over Governor Rauner’s veto, the Debt Transparency Act, requiring State agencies to report monthly, instead of annually the number of unpaid State bills they are holding.
A lead architect of Illinois’ financial turnaround, Mendoza has successfully navigated the state through unprecedented crisis – the 736 day budget impasse and the Covid-19 pandemic, prioritizing funding to hospice centers, nursing homes, children and adults with disabilities, schools and the state’s most vulnerable.
Notwithstanding these immense challenges, she has eliminated the state’s backlog of unpaid bills, down from a historic high of $16.7 billion to a healthy accounts payable of $1.8 billion, delivered the fastest vendor payment cycle in decades – down from over 200 days to well under 30 days today, and led the state to its first credit upgrades in over 20 years, for a total of 6 upgrades in less than a year.
AS THE FIRST WOMAN ELECTED CHICAGO CITY CLERK
In her first term as Chicago City Clerk, Susana successfully transitioned 1.3 million customers away from an inefficient and archaic annual Chicago City Vehicle Sticker sales program dating back 105 years.
She also took on the horrendous puppy mill industry and won. Working closely with animal rights groups, primarily the Puppy Mill Project, Clerk Mendoza spearheaded and passed the Companion Animal and Consumer Protection Ordinance.
AS A SIX-TERM ILLINOIS STATE REPRESENTATIVE
Before City Clerk, Susana Mendoza proudly served six terms as a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 2001 to 2011 for the 1st District.
Elected in 2000 as the youngest member of the 92nd Illinois General Assembly, she was publicly recognized for her leadership and legislation on social services, education, law enforcement, job creation and animal welfare. She was a leading sponsor of HR 1650 which created the panel to impeach former Governor Blagojevich and she served as an active alternate member of the impeachment committee.
IN HIGH SCHOOL & COLLEGE
Susana Mendoza graduated from Bolingbrook High School where she earned All-State and All-Midwest honors in varsity soccer. As such, she became the first female to ever make it onto the Bolingbrook High School Wall of Fame.
She attended Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) on a soccer and academic scholarship, earning All-Midwest honors in soccer and a B.A. in Business Administration.
HAPPILY MARRIED
Susana lives in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood with her husband David, their nine-year-old son, and her 86-year-old mother.
