23 Facts About Iris Martinez

Iris Y Martinez was born on February 25,1956 and is an American politician and administrator.

Iris Martinez previously served as a member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 20th district from 2003 until becoming clerk.

Iris Martinez was the first Latina woman to be elected to the Illinois State Senate.

In 2003 Iris Martinez sponsored legislation, introduced by then-Representative Sara Feigenholtz and later signed into law by Governor Rod Blagojevich, that requires health insurance companies to provide women with contraceptive coverage.

In recognition of this legislation, Iris Martinez received the Profile in Courage Award from Planned Parenthood.

Iris Martinez targeted Illinois drivers with out of state reckless homicide and DUI convictions with the passage of a new law.

In 2004, Iris Martinez was awarded the Hillary Clinton Leadership Award, presented to an elected official by the Illinois Democratic Women's organization.

Iris Martinez was the Chairperson of the Pensions Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Housing and Community Affairs Committee, and was a member of three additional committees: Commerce, Health and Human Services, and Insurance.

In 2006, Iris Martinez endorsed judicial candidate Ramon Ocasio III over the Cook County Democratic Party endorsed candidate, Ed Lechowicz, the son of former State Senator Ted Lechowicz, saying she did so to increase the number of Latinos on the Cook County judiciary.

In 2008, Martinez faced a primary challenge from state representative Richard T Bradley, who represented half of her district in the House.

In 2018, J B Pritzker appointed Martinez to Powering Illinois' Future transition committee, which is responsible for infrastructure and clean energy policies.

Iris Martinez later announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for Circuit Clerk.

Iris Martinez won the general election and was sworn in on December 1,2020.

Iris Martinez is the first Latina to serve in the position, and the second woman of color to hold the position.

In November 2022, Iris Martinez announced that the office of the clerk of courts had been relieved of federal oversight of its hiring and employment practices.

Since assuming the office of Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Iris Martinez has come under fire for her office's hiring practices and use of political patronage.

In December 2022, the Chicago Tribune reported that 23 employees of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County's office hired by Iris Martinez performed political work for the 33rd Ward aldermanic campaign of Samie Martinez, a political protege of Martinez, raising concerns about machine influence on the race.

In March 2022, Iris Martinez hosted Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 president John Catanzara, a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, at a fundraiser for her ward political organization.

Iris Martinez accepted $7,000 in campaign contributions from Catanzara's FOP Lodge 7.

In June 2022, the FOP slate suffered "landslide" losses in the Democratic primaries, and Iris Martinez lost her Democratic Party State Central Committee seat to Delia Ramirez.

In May 2023, WBEZ reported that the Clerk's office under Iris Martinez had been erroneously putting felonies on the records of people who had successfully completed diversion programs for a period of at least 3 years, resulting in losses of housing, employment, and education opportunities for victims of the mistakes.

In February 2024, Illinois Answers Project reported that the Clerk's office under Iris Martinez violated Illinois juvenile court laws by exposing the personal data of at least 5,000 children, leaving the information publicly available for nearly two weeks.

Iris Martinez was elected to the Democratic Party of Illinois State Central Committee in 2002, and to the Cook County Democratic Party Committee in 2020.