Most people couldn’t tell you what the Illinois Comptroller actually does. Karina Villa is betting that’s exactly the problem. The state senator from West Chicago launched her campaign for the office with a line that cuts through all the bureaucratic noise: “I’m not running for comptroller because I love spreadsheets. I’m running because I believe and understand deeply that budgets are moral documents.”
That framing, turning a traditionally behind-the-scenes office into a frontline fight for working families, is what makes Villa’s candidacy worth paying attention to.
Who Is Karina Villa?
Villa was born into an immigrant family and raised in West Chicago, a working-class suburb about 35 miles west of downtown. She attended Aurora University and built her career as a school social worker in the West Chicago School District 33, working directly with students and families navigating the gap between what they needed and what the system offered.
That experience pulled her into politics. In 2018, she ran for the Illinois House of Representatives and won, joining the General Assembly in 2019. Two years later, she moved to the Illinois Senate, where she’s represented the 25th District since 2021. Along the way, she’s established herself as one of the most progressive voices in Springfield, championing labor protections, education funding, and equitable tax policy.
Her campaign launch for Comptroller happened in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, with U.S. Representatives Delia Ramirez and Chuy Garcia standing beside her. That setting wasn’t accidental. Little Village is one of the largest Mexican-American communities in the Midwest, and Villa’s candidacy carries cultural significance for a community that has never seen someone who looks like them hold a statewide constitutional office.
Why Comptroller Matters
Here’s the real talk on what the Comptroller does: they control the checkbook. Every dollar the state of Illinois spends goes through the Comptroller’s office. That means decisions about when schools get funded, when social service agencies get paid, when healthcare providers receive reimbursements, and when working people’s tax refunds hit their accounts.
Villa wants to prioritize human services and public health payments first, followed by payrolls, schools, and local governments. That ordering tells you everything about her values. When the money is tight (and in Illinois, the money is always tight), who gets paid first is a statement about who matters.
She’s also pushing for modern e-invoicing, automated workflow tracking across state agencies, and monthly public performance metrics so taxpayers can actually see where their money is going. Transparency isn’t a buzzword for her. It’s a functional upgrade to a system that has historically operated in the dark.
The Platform
Villa’s priorities extend beyond the mechanical functions of the office. She wants to appoint a Prevailing Wage Officer and a Labor Law Compliance Liaison to ensure that workers on state-funded projects are getting paid correctly. She supports a constitutional amendment to create a graduated tax system that gives the middle class a break while making billionaires and corporations pay at a level that matches their actual impact on the state’s resources.
She’s endorsed by Senate President Don Harmon, the Chicago Teachers Union, outgoing U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia, and a long list of state lawmakers, unions, and community organizations. The National Association of Social Workers endorsed her as well, a nod to her career before politics.
In a four-way primary that includes two other state legislators and a county treasurer, Villa is positioning herself as the most progressive option, someone who sees fiscal management not as a neutral exercise but as an expression of priorities.
The Culture Connection
Villa’s story is one that resonates across communities where immigrant families built something from nothing and then fought to make sure the next generation had more options. As a Latina running for a statewide constitutional office, she’s part of a broader movement of representation that mirrors what’s been happening in hip-hop and culture for years: people who were told the big stages weren’t for them showing up anyway and proving they belong.
Her background in social work also connects her to the real, unglamorous side of community building. She wasn’t a lawyer or a financier who pivoted to public service. She was in the schools, working with kids and families who couldn’t afford to wait for the system to get around to them. That perspective, applied to a $50 billion state budget, could fundamentally change who benefits from public spending in Illinois.
How to Follow the Campaign
- Website: karinavilla.com
- Primary Election: March 17, 2026
