Just 37% of Chicago Teachers Union members voted for Stacy Davis Gates
With only 10,100 of the Chicago Teachers Union’s 27,216 active members voting to retain Stacy Davis Gates as president, she doesn’t have support from nearly two-thirds of the teachers the union represents.
Just 37% of active Chicago Teachers Union members voted for current president Stacy Davis Gates, according to certified results of its May 16 officers election.
Votes were not counted from 14 schools.
January 2025 polling already showed Davis Gates and CTU don’t have the support of most Chicagoans. Just 18.5% have a favorable view of Davis Gates, whose tenure as CTU president has been rocked by scandals, while 55% have an unfavorable view. Only 29% of voters approve of the union, with 60% disapproving.
But the official CTU election results reveal even more about the deep-seated dislike for Davis Gates. She doesn’t even have the support of most of the teachers the union represents.
Just 37% of active members voted for Stacy Davis Gates
Davis Gates won the leadership election by receiving 10,100 votes of the 15,773 total votes cast. Her opponent, Erika Meza, received 5,673 votes. But CTU has 27,216 active members, according to the 2024 report it filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. That means 42% of active members didn’t vote at all.
The bottom line: just 37% of the union’s active members voted for Davis Gates.
Clearly, Davis Gates doesn’t have the backing she would like district leaders and Chicagoans to think.
Votes were not counted in 14 schools
Not all votes cast were counted. CTU revealed there were 14 schools where ballots “could not be counted,” either because the ballot boxes weren’t returned or because they were missing a voter signature list.
CTU listed those schools as:
- Audubon Elementary School
- Belmont-Craigon Community Elementary
- Crown Community Academy
- Edgebrook Elementary School
- Esmond Elementary School
- Johnson Elementary School
- Lawndale Community Academy
- Mays Academy
- McDade Classical School
- Pirie Elementary School
- Raby School
- J. Smyth Elementary School
- Urban Prep Bronzeville Campus
- Urban Prep Englewood Campus.
The union did not publish the number of ballots that were not counted, but there are more than 280 full-time teachers at those schools, according to CPS’ March 2025 employee position roster. That doesn’t include additional part-time employees or non-teachers who also can be union members.
While the uncounted ballots would not be enough to change the results of the election, it’s not a good look for the union.
Davis Gates and her slate of radical leaders may have won the election, but it’s a hollow victory. The numbers show it isn’t just residents who disapprove of her. She doesn’t even have the support of most teachers represented by her union.