(Bloomberg) -- Chance the Rapper wants to see Enyia the mayor.
The Grammy-winning Chicago musician, whose real name is Chancelor Bennett, announced Tuesday at City Hall that he's throwing his support behind Amara Enyia's campaign to lead the third biggest U.S. city.
“I want to work with somebody that's about change, somebody that's about our community, somebody that's about equity, somebody that's about fairness," he said.
Enyia, a lawyer and activist, is part of a crowded field of more than a dozen candidates who have outlined their intentions to run in the Feb. 26 election to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who unexpectedly announced on Sept. 4 that he won't seek a third term. Her campaign website calls for a public bank for the city and criticizes Chicago's leaders for leaving the government too deeply in debt. She also backs ending corporate tax loopholes and honoring of pension commitments to municipal employees.
Other candidates include Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, former police superintendent Garry McCarthy and Bill Daley, commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama's chief of staff. Daley's brother and father both served as Chicago mayor.
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Whether the endorsement will help improve Enyia's odds is unclear. But Bennett has been politically active and has 8 million followers on Twitter -- a number that's more than twice Chicago's population of 2.7 million.
The City Hall press conference may have left some of them disappointed, if they expected Bennett to throw his hat in the ring. “I'm proud to announce that I will not be running for mayor,” he said, eliciting laughs from the crowd. “I'd like to say very narcissistically -- if I back you, you have a chance absolutely.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Campbell in Chicago at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Crombie at jcrombie8@bloomberg.net, William Selway, Michael B. Marois
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