Precious Brady-Davis, running for reelection as Commissioner at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, has a long history as an environmental and social justice advocate, with work at the Sierra Club, the Beyond Coal campaign, and now as chief strategy officer at Center on Halsted, the largest LGBTQ+ center in the Midwest.

The commissioner, 40, brought those experiences to her work at the city agency and gained many fans along the way with her focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. As commissioner, Brady-Davis pushed investments in Black and Brown communities facing flooding and expanded green spaces for people and children in underserved communities across Cook County. She also caught the attention of Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) early in her electoral career.

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While she didn’t run her first race for the post on “outright being a Black trans woman,” Brady-Davis’s personal story has been at the forefront of her appeal, as she and her husband Myles, who is also trans, have set about “uplifting trans love” in Chicago.

She spoke with LGBTQ Nation following a “wonderful board meeting” at the agency, where she’s “glad to do the work of the people.”

LGBTQ Nation: I’d like to start with a vibe check, from your perspective as a trans woman. Is the crusade against trans identity by Trump and red state Republicans a political tool that’s losing its effectiveness, or are trans Americans facing an existential crisis in October 2026?

I said it from the beginning of this administration, and I still stand on that today: I think the crusade against trans kids and trans people is nothing more than a distraction.

We have seen the president and his family benefit off the presidency. We saw the same tech oligarchs who sat with him as he was sworn into office say that they’re going to self-police themselves when it comes to AI, which I think is a more substantial threat than the lives of trans people.

We are a minority population in the country, but we care about the same issues as everyone else. We care about having access to a safe place to lay our heads at night, access to affordable health care, access to a good education.

There are three million trans people in the U.S., the equivalent of the state of Iowa. Do their rights not matter? The president’s culture wars are just what got him into office.

Whether or not voters see Trump and Republicans’ exploitation of trans issues for what it is, trans girls playing sports has become a political third rail for Democrats running in the midterms this year; they just don’t want to talk about it if they don’t have to. How do you judge their reticence, and where do you come down on the issue?

As I reflect on my childhood, I think about a young, gender nonconforming kid who just wanted to be, and I think it’s our job to affirm young people. I think when it comes to gender-affirming care, that’s a decision that’s made between a family and a physician.

And I think it’s important that young people have access to extracurricular activities. That’s a piece of how you can enter and find various facets of your identity. And so, I think we should let these kids play. I think that Sen. Durbin (D-IL) highlighted it well last year in a hearing when he said that there are less than 10 trans athletes who even play at the collegiate level. So once again, the data does not support an issue that they’re trying to make up.

Along with your work as commissioner, you’re also the chief strategy officer at Center on Halsted. What’s fundraising been like, and community engagement generally, since Trump returned to office? Has your mission changed?

The center and its mission have not changed. It’s still to advance the health and well-being of LGBTQ people across Chicagoland. Of course, we as an LGBTQ center faced setbacks, as most LGBTQ institutions did. In particular, rollbacks when it comes to things like HIV prevention. The center was impacted by that in the beginning, and thanks to the courts, those funds have now been restored.

And I think now more than ever – now more than ever – LGBTQ centers are important, that folks have a gathering place where they can see themselves reflected, where they feel safety, where they feel affirmed. And so, the work of the center and my work there to advance community and make sure that the center’s programs are as effective as they can be, that’s more important than it ever has been before.

Along with L.A. and D.C., Trump targeted Chicago in October with National Guard troops, but was rebuffed by the Supreme Court, which said he didn’t have the authority to “allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.” What was the reaction to that invasion in Chicago when it arrived?

I was proud to stand on the banks of the Chicago River with Gov. Pritzker (D-IL), our mayor Brandon Johnson (D), and other elected officials as we stood shoulder to shoulder, and we rebuffed the president. Not in Chicago. I think it has devastated a community, and once again, I think we see that this president is always needing to punch down on the most marginalized.

There’s always a distraction happening, and I think that the data is clear. The president is even losing his own base of Latino voters who swept him into office. We’re seeing folks from his own party saying, “Mr. President, too much. You have gone too far.” And I think we saw the resilience of Chicagoans, coming together, protecting our neighbors. I was a part of town halls educating folks on the importance of knowing their rights. I was passing out pamphlets with various community groups, and so I think that the nation saw how resilient Chicago is as a city.

Do you think the midterms mark the beginning of the end of the Trump era?

I think the vestiges of the Trump era will always live with us. We saw the Trump administration come to power and dismantle systems that will take years to rebuild. There are still judges who will make decisions that will affect our lives. There’s still his majority on the Supreme Court that will affect our lives. And so I don’t want us to just say, “Oh, the end of the Trump era is here.” No. You know, Donald Trump was voted in by a majority. This is who we are.

But I believe the pendulum of power will always swing, so now it’s about fighting for what comes next, and what do we want to see for the next version of America?

I see some exciting gains happening with the midterms. We see excitement in Texas with James Talarico, we see excitement in Florida and Ohio. We see the policies of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City actually delivering on issues of affordability. They’re actually resonating with folks, so much so that the president gushes on Mayor Mamdani, who is supposed to be the next coming of communism in America. I think this era is about focusing on issues that affect people’s lives: groceries, energy costs, regulating AI, regulating data centers – everyday issues.

I do want to state for the record that Trump did not earn a majority of the votes.

He won the Electoral College.

He did indeed.

Which is how we determine the presidency.

For now.

(Laughing)

You were appointed as a commissioner to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago by Gov. Pritzker before you were elected to your seat outright in 2024. How did you end up on his radar? And I’m curious – inside baseball question – how exactly were you offered the job?

So I originally ran for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and lost. And I think the governor watched me work really hard during that race. I was a first-time candidate, but I had gotten 125,000 votes in my first election. Then there was a vacancy.

And the governor called me. I’ll never forget it. It was Fourth of July morning, and he said, “Congratulations! I’m appointing you to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.” And the funny thing was, I was a blank. I kind of jumped for a second, like, what is this? I didn’t know who was calling, and it’s the governor. He called me himself on the Fourth of July. So every Fourth of July will be very special for me.

You earned about 125,000 votes in your first election, but you got 70% of the vote against your Republican opponent in the special election for the seat, and over 1.2 million Chicagoans voted for you. Was that humbling?

Oh my gosh, it’s so humbling that Chicagoans have faith in my vision, in my leadership and service, and that’s really what it’s about for me. I do a lot of listening. There are 126 municipalities that make up Cook County, and I tell you, I’ve been to a lot of them. So I really have put in the work and have gone and listened to voters, and they trust my relationship with those communities. That’s important to me.

On the subject of the governor, could Pritzker be the next Democratic nominee for president? And related, would you like to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2028?

Well, first, I will say that I’m proud of what Gov. Pritzker is doing in Illinois: back-to-back balanced budgets, LGBTQ education is top in schools, a focus on elementary and preschool education, giving folks tax relief, focusing on affordability, focusing on renewable energy and jobs, addressing those wronged by the criminal justice system. Gov. Pritzker has taken all of this on.

I think it’s easy for folks to focus on, “Oh, the governor is a billionaire,” but they don’t think about his personal story, right? Losing his father, the struggle of his mother when it came to addiction. I also grew up in tumultuous circumstances, and he’s got a powerful personal story. I think that he is a glorious definition of a happy warrior, and I’m so glad that the nation is meeting him. He’s truly met the moment in Illinois.

How about a trip to Boston or Denver for the convention in 2028?

Oh, I will certainly be at that convention.

You were at the Sierra Club for several years, where you worked on renewable energy and environmental justice initiatives. Now, as commissioner, one issue you deal with is how water is used by industry. Are data centers a subject of debate in your water district, and what are your concerns about them?

Oh, absolutely. Data centers are becoming more prevalent, and I don’t want them taking away from Lake Michigan, which is the source of our drinking water and a part of the largest body of fresh water on Earth.

I’m proposing water reuse. If folks want to have data centers, then that water should not be coming from Lake Michigan. We treat about 1.2 billion gallons of water in our seven water reclamation plants, and I really feel that’s where a solution is. That’s what I’m proposing when it comes to the development of data centers in Cook County.

And that’s the kind of work that I want to continue doing: investing in green infrastructure, working for innovation, working to mitigate flooding all across the county. Flooding is something that everyone can relate to. No matter your social status, economic status, or your ethnicity, folks want a dry basement.

Lake Michigan is our most precious water source. I’m elected to protect that, and that’s the great legacy of this agency that I’ve upheld.

With your election in 2024, you became the first trans elected official in Cook County, but you’re not the only pathbreaker in your family. Together with your husband, who carried your children, you’re the first transgender couple to be correctly gendered on an Illinois birth certificate. There are not a lot of pregnant men out there. Tell us about how you and your husband Myles publicly navigated his pregnancies.

Oh, that warms my heart. I haven’t talked about that for a long time, because my kids are six and three now. That feels like a lifetime away.

Since the beginning of our relationship, Myles and I have always been about uplifting trans love, and I think how you change hearts and minds is really about showing people the humanity of our lives. And what better illustrates humanity than bringing children into the world and growing your family? That’s why it was important for us to really tell that story. And our family being accurately reflected on a birth certificate, so that we can travel safely, or register our kids at school without having to out ourselves, that’s an important part of it.

Science has a lot to do with the family you formed, and medical advancements are going to open those possibilities to even more people and families as time goes on. But a lot of conservative Christians have a deeply held belief that altering sex is some kind of an abomination. You grew up in a religious household. How do you see that argument?

I think that trans is divine, and I think across world history that there are examples of trans populations. You have the Hijra of India, the Kathoey of Thailand, the two-spirited people who roamed the prairie. And I feel like I am a part of a great history of Americans who came before me. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who birthed the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement. I think it takes a certain amount of faith to say, “This is who I am.” I think it takes self-awareness, which is, in essence, what faith is. Having the self-awareness to recognize that there is something higher than you. There is divinity in that.