Wilson served as the Chairman of the Governor's Task Force on Fair Practices in Contracting. Wilson has contended in 5 elections in the United States.
2015 Chicago mayoral campaign Wilson ran for
Mayor of Chicago in 2015, being one of several challengers to incumbent mayor
Rahm Emanuel. Wilson collected 43,000 signatures for his candidature petition within five days. Emanuel issued a challenge to the validity of signatures collected. Emanuel ultimately dropped his challenge to Wilson's petition. Wilson staked out a number of positions, including advocating for bringing a
casino to Chicago and restoring
Meigs Field (on
Northerly Island) as an airport. Wilson was critical of Police Superintendent
Garry McCarthy, and pledged to fire him if elected mayor. Wilson's endorsement in the runoff was actively sought by both candidates Rahm Emanuel and
Jesús "Chuy" García. Wilson endorsed García.
2016 U.S. presidential campaign After setting up an exploratory committee on May 11, 2015, Wilson officially announced on June 1, 2015, that he would be running as a candidate for
President of the United States in the
2016 election. He ran as a
Democrat. The Wilson campaign was the first presidential campaign, Democratic or Republican, to buy advertisements in the state of
Iowa. Wilson was on the ballot in several states during the
2016 Democratic primaries. He was the only minor candidate to appear on the ballot in South Carolina's "First in the South" primaries, perhaps due to the comparatively higher cost of the state's ballot entry fee. Wilson received 1,314 votes, or 0.35% of the total, in South Carolina, placing ahead of former Maryland Governor
Martin O'Malley. Wilson dropped out on April 12, 2016. In the general election, Wilson voted for Republican nominee
Donald Trump. Democratic Party Dinner Detailed below are the
FEC-filed finances of
Willie Wilson 2016 as of 5/6/2016 During his campaign, Wilson generated controversy for handing out money to churchgoers. This practice of his was challenged before the Illinois State Board of Elections, which found that it did not violate any campaign finance laws since the money came from his non-profit foundation. Wilson defended his actions, declaring that his church appearances were not campaign-related, and that he was not
buying votes. He continued this practice after the decision by the Board of Elections. During the campaign, in late November 2018, Wilson declared that he believed that other black candidates needed, "to get out of the way." Wilson launched challenges to the candidature petitions of several black candidates, and
Dorothy Brown. Wilson failed to make it to the runoff, placing fourth with 59,072 votes, equal 10.61% of vote cast. Wilson performed very well on the West and South sides of the city. Despite placing fourth, Wilson had a plurality of the vote in more wards than any other candidate (he came first in thirteen wards). The thirteen wards that Wilson carried a plurality of the vote in were all predominately black (these being thirteen out of the total of eighteen wards in the city that are predominately black). Again, Wilson's endorsement was actively sought by both candidates in the runoff. Wilson endorsed
Lori Lightfoot.
2020 U.S. Senate campaign In August 2019, Wilson expressed his intention to challenge incumbent United States Senator from Illinois
Dick Durbin in 2020, running in the general election as an independent challenger to Durbin. Rather than run as an independent, he ultimately opted to run under the ballot line of his newly created "Willie Wilson Party". Wilson received the support of three current and former Chicago aldermen, as well as that of the
Fraternal Order of Police. Wilson received 4% of the vote statewide, finishing in a distant third place. His highest support came from the majority-black wards of Chicago where he had done well in both his mayoral campaigns. Totaling up all 18 of Chicago's majority-black wards, Wilson garnered 18.5% of the vote, well ahead of Republican
Mark Curran, who received only 4%, but still far behind Durbin who received 75.9%. and food donations. Wilson’s campaign cited key issues in his platform as being small businesses, increasing safety, and ‘rebuilding’ Chicago. Wilson advocated for increased safety on public transport, crime reduction, tax reduction, and opposing corruption. He also supported the abolishment of red-light traffic cameras, parking meter reform, and other issues. Wilson accused incumbent mayor
Lori Lightfoot of mismanagement, especially relating to gas prices and economic reinvigoration. He also called out corruption in the city, and said some officials were “out of touch” with the public. Wilson criticized earlier decisions to implement previous safety measures amid the
COVID-19 pandemic that had the impact of temporary prohibiting church gatherings. Wilson spoke positively of the
Chicago Police Department. Wilson was considered to be the only of the nine candidates on the ballot not to be affiliated with the
Democratic Party, though the election is officially nonpartisan. In the initial round of the election, Wilson was defeated, placing fifth of nine candidates with 49,248 votes (9.57% of the election's overall vote). A week after the first round, Wilson subsequently endorsed
Paul Vallas in the runoff election. ==Personal life==