Among other issues, she is known for championing the county's controversial sweetened beverage tax, sponsorship of living wage ordinances, concerns about the costs and benefits of Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and her strong stance against police brutality and the use of excessive force.

[3] During high school, she worked on the campaign of Katie McWatt, who was the first African American person to run for St. Paul City Council.

[31] Preckwinkle has supported the majority of legislation advanced by the mayor and his allies, including most of Daley's annual budget proposals; his controversial use of tax increment financing, an economic development program in which tax revenues are funneled into accounts controlled almost exclusively by the mayor; and, ultimately, his quest to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

[34][35] Preckwinkle was outspoken in support of the city settling the Jon Burge police torture case, rather than continuing to spend money in the litigation process.

[36] She was also proactive in the effort to pursue compensation for victims of police brutality in the related Burge cases, and sought hearings on the initial special prosecutor's report.

[5] On July 26, 2006, Preckwinkle was one of 35 aldermen who voted to approve the 2006 Chicago Big Box Ordinance sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore (49th).

[43] For 7 weeks, until the law was overturned, Chicago was the largest United States city to require big-box retailers to pay a "living wage."

The murals had been created by graffiti artists, working with permission from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and had represented themes that included Latin-American, African, Mayan, Indian, and Native American spiritual practices.

She was an early advocate of moving what would have been the Olympic Village from the McCormick Place truck yard to the Michael Reese Hospital site.

On March 14, 2007, Preckwinkle joined four other South Side aldermen in voting against a $500 million public-funded guarantee to back up Chicago's Olympics bid.

[57] John Byrne and Alice Yin of the Chicago Tribune have characterized Preckwinkle as pursuing and implementing a "progressive agenda" as Board president.

[59] On February 2, 2010, she won a strong victory the Democratic Party primary election, defeating the incumbent Board President Todd Stroger and fellow challengers Dorothy Brown (the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court) and Terrence J.

However, on the votes that did see division, the most frequent opposition to Preckwinkle's position arose from three Democratic members that had been allies of Todd Stroger: Earlean Collins, Joan Patricia Murphy, and William Beavers (prior to his November 2012 departure from the Board).

Preckwinkle faced criticism for proclaiming that the ordinance to ignore the federal governments' request would actually enhance public safety.

Four Republican members of the United States Senate's Committee on the Judiciary wrote a letter to Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, decrying the county ordinance as a "serious threat to public safety".

[76] Also in August 2012, Preckwinkle defended Chicago's action to decriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis by allowing police to write tickets.

[82] Preckwinkle declined to make an endorsement in that election, despite the fact that her own county board floor leader, Chuy García, was Emanuel's prime challenger.

[86] In defense of the tax, Preckwinkle argued that it was a justified means of achieving the public health goal of decreasing Cook County residents' consumption of sugar.

[93] Preckwinkle did not target the Republican-held 9th district seat, as the incumbent Republican, Peter N. Silvestri, was both popular and a political centrist and had a reputation for being a peacemaker on the Board at times when conflict arose between its members.

[94] In 2018, under Preckwinkle's leadership, Cook County controversially requested an easement to build a road at taxpayer expense (~$750K-$1M) to pave public green space and the 10th hole of the Canal Shores Golf Course in the northern suburbs, which benefited of State Senators President John Cullerton and a private developer.

[113] In 2024, Preckwinkle personally endorsed Mariyana Spyropoulos's campaign to unseat incumbent Democrat Iris Martinez in the election for Cook County clerk of courts.

Burke had allegedly pressured fast-food executive Shoukat Dhanani to make an illegal $10,000 donation to Preckwinkle's campaign.

[129][130] Several former candidates, including Mendoza, Chico, Paul Vallas, and fourth-place finisher Willie Wilson also endorsed Lightfoot in the runoff.

Jesse Jackson, both Preckwinkle and Lightfoot held a unity press conference at the Rainbow/PUSH headquarters on April 3, 2019, pledging to work together and not to get in the way of each other's political careers.

[157] The complaint against Preckwinkle's ward organization was among eight that the Cook County Republican Party appealed to the Supreme Court of Illinois.

[165] She was among those who encouraged Obama to make his first run for the United States Congress in 2000,[166] taking a political risk in supporting his unsuccessful challenge to incumbent congressman Bobby Rush.

[171][172][173] The article begins by recounting a 1995 meeting between Preckwinkle and Obama in which he discussed a possible run for the Illinois Senate seat then held by Alice Palmer.

[173] According to The New Yorker, Preckwinkle "soon became an Obama loyalist, and she stuck with him in a State Senate campaign that strained or ruptured many friendships but was ultimately successful.

[177] Barack Obama had not stayed neutral in the city's previous mayoral election, having endorsed Rahm Emanuel's 2015 reelection campaign.

[178] *Uncertified results published in the Chicago Tribune on February 25, 1987 From 1969 to 2013, she was married to Zeus Preckwinkle, then a seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at Ancona Montessori School.