Manuel Perez
Age: 30
Title: Managing Deputy Director
Name of Organization: City of Chicago
Manuel Pérez recently served as Campaign Manager for the Lori Lightfoot campaign for Mayor. He helped catapult Lightfoot to victory and helped her make history as the city’s first openly gay mayor and only second female. She also was only the second African American to be elected mayor.
Pérez has led a variety of campaigns at the local, state, and federal level, including working on the campaign of Jesús “Chuy” García who in 2018 successfully won a seat in the U.S. Congress.
During his role in Cook County government, Pérez served as special assistant to the president of the county board, chief of staff to the county clerk, and chief of staff to Garcia who was then a Cook County Commissioner.
Born in Chicago to Mexican immigrants, Pérez grew up in West Suburban Cicero, Illinois. He graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in history and resides in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.
