As Comptroller, Holly Kim will protect people’s personal and money information so it cannot be misused or turned into a political weapon.
At the federal level, MAGA extremists have made clear they want access to sensitive information like our state income tax returns and financial records in order to target political opponents and vulnerable communities.
Holly believes unequivocally: your data is not up for grabs.
The Comptroller’s Office plays a critical role as a firewall by safeguarding financial systems, enforcing privacy protections, and ensuring that no outside agenda compromises Illinois residents’ personal information. Holly will use the authority of the office to block improper data sharing and stand up to any attempt to pry into the private lives of Illinoisans.
Holly’s commitment to privacy is personal. A close family member once stole her identity and destroyed her credit, giving her firsthand knowledge of how devastating data misuse can be. That experience shaped her lifelong advocacy for privacy rights.
Holly’s privacy rights advocacy can be traced all the way back to 2013 as a Village Trustee in Mundelein, where she pushed back and won against the misuse of license plate reader (LPR) data, insisting on strong guardrails to prevent surveillance overreach.
Most recently here in, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol illegally accessed that LPR data for their operations in Chicago against immigrant communities. In the same year, Texas police illegally accessed Illinois LPR data in their attempts to detain a woman seeking an abortion.
Holly understands that technology without accountability can quickly become a tool for abuse and she knows how to stop it.
Prevailing wage ensures that workers on publicly funded projects are paid fairly for their skilled labor and are not undercut by contractors who ignore wage laws. It is one of the strongest tools Illinois has to protect working families and uphold labor standards.
Holly Kim is unapologetically pro-worker. Unions built the middle class in Illinois. Unions secured weekends for workers, hourly wages, and safe working conditions. As Comptroller, Holly will strengthen and expand enforcement of prevailing wage laws so that public dollars never subsidize exploitation, a key pillar to the work Comptroller Mendoza championed for working people in her time in the office.
With data centers and solar farms popping up, seemingly all at the same time, the Comptroller’s Prevailing Wage Department needs investment to improve compliance tools and ensure that workers on public buildings, schools, and infrastructure projects are treated with dignity and paid what they are legally owed.
Holly knows this work from the inside.
As an executive overseeing a unionized workforce represented by AFSCME Council 31, she has managed labor contracts, respected collective bargaining, and delivered results without attacking workers.
As a Village Trustee, Holly was the only board member to publicly oppose Governor Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda.” When the proposal was rushed forward, she questioned the lack of data, pushed back, and refused to rubber-stamp policies that would weaken workers without proper public input.
Hundreds of union workers flooded the Trustee meeting because Holly blew the whistle knowing the Governor’s overreach was looking to hurt working people.
Ultimately, thanks to Holly’s pushback, the Agenda never saw the light of day.
PAID FOR BY FRIENDS OF HOLLY KIM