Jerry Joyce

Jeremiah Joyce Jr., known as Jerry Joyce, is an American attorney and politician. He ran for mayor of Chicago in 2019.

Joyce is the son of former Chicago alderman Jeremiah E. Joyce. He is the brother of former Illinois State Representative Kevin Joyce.

Joyce graduated from Marist High School in 1987. While at Marist, Joyce was a member of both the football and wrestling teams. In his senior year, the football team won the state championships and the wrestling team took the state title.

Joyce received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in economics and political science. He continued to wrestle and play football while at Yale. He captained Yale's varsity wrestling team.

Joyce received his Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Joyce works as an attorney and a lobbyist.

Joyce was once a small-business owner.

Joyce worked as an assistant state's attorney on the executive staff of the Cook County State's Attorney office.

Joyce currently works in private legal practice.

2019 Chicago mayoral campaign

In what was his first bid for elected office, Joyce ran in Chicago's 2019 mayoral election.

Joyce initially challenged the validity of signatures on the candidature petition of candidate Bill Daley, but ultimately withdrew his challenge.

Joyce was seen to be positioning himself as a "law and order" candidate. Daley and Joyce were seen to be each competing for similar kinds of voters.

In late-January, a month before the election, the two publicly released polls that included Joyce showed him polling at roughly 1%. However, by mid-February, Joyce's campaign had conducted a poll which showed him garnering 10% of the vote, and a poll conducted by Change Research within a week of the election showed him polling at 8%.

Joyce ultimately placed seventh in the initial round of the election, with 7.2% of the vote. He was the top-performing candidate in four of the city's wards (Wards 13, 19, 23, and 41).

Failing to advance to the runoff, Joyce subsequently endorsed Lori Lightfoot.

Prospective subsequent political endeavors

Joyce was speculated as a potential candidate to run for Cook County State's Attorney in 2020, but declined to run.

Joyce lives in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. Joyce married his wife, Jannine, in 1999. Jannine Joyce is a pediatrician. They have four children together named Jeremiah, Karina, Christian, and Keyli.

Joyce has remained involved at high school alma mater Marist, even having been their assistant football coach in the mid-1990s.

Charitable work

Joyce established the Tom Walsh Memorial Scholarship, named in honor of the deceased former Chicago police officer and former Chief of Courts for Cook County.

Joyce has been a supporter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.