Thursday’s Chicago Bike PAC Campaign Trail Party will be a who’s who of bicycle-friendly politicians and organizations

Chicago BikePAC, a political action committee with the goal of electing politicians who support better bike infrastructure, and Complete Streets in general, launched in August 2025. It was founded by Kevin Borgia, “an experienced political advocate for sustainable solar power,” and Chris Ridgeway, formerly the political communications director for Ald. La Spata (1st). Currently, their top priority is electing a bicycle-friendly City Council next year.

With that goal, BikePAC is holding a Campaign Trail Party this Thursday, September 10, 5:30 p.m. at Midwest Coast Brewing Company, 2137 W. Walnut St. on the Near West Side. They’re billing the event, cohosted by Better Streets Chicago (Action Fund), Chicago Family Biking, and Bike Grid Now, as them “inviting the entire cycling community out for a party with a purpose.”

Streetsblog Chicago caught up with Ridgeway for more details on what to expect. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

John Greenfield: I know the background of the Chicago Bike Political Action Committee. So, give me an update on what you folks have been up to lately. How much money have you raised? How much are you trying to raise? Who are some of the candidates you’ve been supporting?

Chris Ridgeway: We’ve been very focused on fundraising during this season, looking ahead to the municipal election in February 2027. We thought that we would only be focused on fundraising, but then we realized that already the races for some aldermanic seats have shaped up very early, and so we have done some expenditures to support candidates. We’ve raised, as of right now, $74,844.

JG: Oh wow.

CR: Yep. On our way to our $100,000 goal. We’ve stated pretty clearly that we want to raise $100,000 for this municipal election, so that elected officials would notice the issue of cyclist safety in the city.

JG: Can you tell me some of the alders who you’ve given money to so far?

CG: We haven’t announced this yet. Our donations are public record, so someone can find them. But we put out a clear statement about who we believe are sort Safe Streets champions are right now. They include five folks that have been, for their past record, safety champions, so they’re well known in the bike community. That includes Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), and Ald. Matt Martin (47th). And then we’ve also been supporting sort early safety champions because of activity in their wards. Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) and Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th). They’ll all be present at the event this Thursday.

Donations are a matter of the public record. For instance, when we made our donation to Julia Ramirez’s campaign a number of months ago, the Archer Guardians [the Astroturfed opposition against the Archer Avenue Completes Streets project, which held weekly protests near Ramirez’s office] found it and posted a photo of me and said some bad things. [Laughs.]”

JG: So yeah, if I was going to choose five alders who tend to be ahead of the curve on bike issues, those those five names you mentioned come to mind. There are probably a few others who I also would think of as being particularly bike friendly.

CR: I won’t mention other names yet, but we are doing a full endorsement process alongside Better Streets Chicago Action Funds. There definitely are other bike-friendly holders in the City Council. But we’re going to wait until after our endorsement process to announce the rest of who we’re supporting.

JG: What can people expect from Thursday’s event?

CR: We hope that my community comes together to raise the raise the rest of the funds we need to be noticed by our elected officials. We’re well on our way. I feel good about it.

Our party host will be Midwest Coast Brewing. The head brewer and other staff there are avid cyclists. Julia Ramirez will speak, as well as [Gil “Pookie’ Campo, an Archer counterprotest co-organizer, along wilth Alfredo Villadares Jr.] He’s a well-known Brighton Park cycling advocate.

Supporters and opponents of the Archer project last December at the first of dueling weekly rallies that lasted for six months. Photos: John Greenfield

So they’ll be presenting about the Southwest Side, and I think their message will be that good infrastructure shouldn’t be just for richer neighborhoods, but it should be for everybody.

I will have some some messages from Rebecca Resman and Tim Shambrook. As you know, Rebecca Resman is the head of Chicago Family Biking, Tim Shambrook is the father of Lily Shambrook, the three-year-old who lost her life a few years ago – we don’t want folks to forget her story. They’ll be bringing the message that Chicago families are watching elected officials on cycling issues.

And then we’ll assemble the elected officials that we are supporting, so people can see who they support, and how to support them through the election.

JG: There are some other groups besides Chicago Family Biking who are co-sponsoring the event, correct?

CR: That’s right. Again, we’ve got Better Street Chicago Action Fund, who’s also our partner for our endorsement process. Of course, Chicago Bike PAC is focused on cycling issues primarily, but a lot of the related general issues Better Street Chicago is covering really well. So we do it with them, together.

Chicago Family Biking hasn’t been involved politically significantly. Mostly they’re just training parents to organize Bike Buses to school, but are frustrated and fed up with the situation aboat cycling safety in the city, and kids need to bike for their school safely. And so, Chicago Family Biking has come on as a co-host. And then Bike Grid Now is well known for advocating for these issues.

JG: Can you tell me how you guys have gotten to the the 70s for raising money? Are there any major donors you can mention.

CR: Yeah. I would mention first that our average donation is $51. So we are significantly a grassroots pack from folks that care about the issue.

But we also do have some sponsors. We’ve been picking our sponsors based on those that we actually believe share our values, right? Our sponsors are on the website. But it includes SRAM, Lime, Christopher Burke Engineering, Keating Law Offices, and ALSO., the new e-bike manufacturer from Rivian.

JG: Is there anything else you’d like to say about Thursday’s event?

CR: We’re really encouraged by the progress in our fundraising and also the event. I know we’ll have ten or more elected officials there, and we’ve been getting inquiries from mayoral candidates to come by. We even got a backdoor inquiry for a mayoral candidate to come speak – I guess I won’t say which one – and we said no at this point because we feel like we don’t know who our champion is in that race. But we welcome candidates to come by and meet folks in here about the issues.

Politico Illinois featured us today in that newsletter, and that shows that the bike community has this new angle of raising political money to get folks to pay attention, and it’s actually working.

Learn more about Chicago Bike PAC at their website.

Check out the invite to the Campaign Trail Party here.

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