What If NeNe Leakes Was Mayor of Dolton?

In 2021, the village of Dolton, a southern suburb of Chicago, might as well have elected NeNe Leakes as Mayor. Instead, they got Tiffany Henyard—a real-life reality TV character governing at taxpayers' expense.

Henyard, like Leakes, thrives on spectacle. The grand entrances, dramatic confrontations, and over-the-top confidence are all there. Watching Tiffany Henyard in the middle of a brawl at a Thornton Township meeting in Dolton in January reminded me of a Real Housewives reunion show. But unlike Leakes, who made a fortune selling buffoonery to her audience, Henyard treats Dolton like her personal stage, where taxpayers foot the bill for her performance.

What many Dolton residents now turned Henyard critics don't realize is she is a Frankenstein of the liberal political machine they enabled for decades.

NeNe Leakes, star of the hit show Real Housewives of Atlanta, built her brand by being the biggest personality in the room. She never met a camera she didn't love, never walked away from an argument she could escalate, and never turned down an opportunity to flex her power. Sound familiar?

Henyard, Dolton's so-called "Super Mayor," runs her town like it's her own Bravo reality show, complete with outrageous spending, fierce feuds, and a cast of characters who either adore or despise her. And like a typical television villain, she always claims she's the victim when things go wrong.

Take the financial mess Dolton is in. The Illinois Comptroller had to withhold $135,000 in funds because Henyard's administration "forgot" to file financial reports for two straight years. A financial probe by former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot found that Henyard spent $43,000 of Dolton taxpayer money in one day on Amazon purchases. Dolton's expenditures exceeded $5.5 million, putting the town $3.6 million in the red.

Meanwhile, she's rolling around with police escorts like she's the queen of the south suburbs, spending taxpayer money like it's Monopoly cash, and treating the Mayor's office like her personal dressing room. Fur coats, Escalades, (alleged) trips to Vegas, and wigs galore.

But in her delusion, it's not her fault. She's the victim here. "You all should be ashamed of yourselves because you all are black. You all are black! And you all sitting up here beating and attacking a black woman that's in power," Henyard said in a town hall meeting last year where she received heavy pushback. "You all should be ashamed of yourselves."

How dare anyone criticize a black woman. Don’t they know black women are to be worshipped above Jesus Christ? The nerve of these people!

If you've ever watched a Real Housewives reunion, you know it's only a matter of time before someone flips a table, punches are thrown, and wigs start flying. That's exactly what happened at a Dolton board meeting in January.

Local activist Jedidiah Brown took the microphone. He concluded his town hall screed by calling Tiffany Henyard a "bitch." Every politician gets called inappropriate names. It comes with the job. Henyard and her boyfriend didn't seem to understand this. Henyard's boyfriend turned into Brian Urlacher and tackled Brown, and a WWE-type brawl ensued. Tables went flying, security jumped in, and in the middle of it all, there was Henyard, physically trying to hold her own before getting knocked to the ground. And her wig took flight.

Tiffany Heynard, the mayor of Dolton village in Illinois and supervisor of nearby Thornton Township, joined a chaotic brawl that erupted at a town meeting after an activist called for her removal Tuesday night. Fight began when Jedidiah Brown, a frequent critic of Henyard, took… pic.twitter.com/p0x83iOrkm

— liten drage (@DrageLiten) January 29, 2025

Henyard is the latest example of a political culture obsessed with identity over substance. For many voters, her status as Dolton's first black female Mayor mattered more than her qualifications, policies, or history of financial mismanagement.

Sure. Henyard has turned herself and Dolton into a laughingstock, but there are dozens of Tiffany Henyards in Congress. Jasmine Crockett is a WWE brawl from being the Tiffany Henyard of Texas. AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley all echo Henyard's brand of theatrical, grievance-driven leadership.

Across the country, politicians are propelled into office based on identity politics rather than their ability to govern. The talking heads in the media, who claim to speak truth to power for the working man but are really just jock sniffers for the elite, spur the obsession with skin color and gender.

It's a classic Marxist strategy—get the 99% fighting amongst each other while the 1% make off with the money and power. Marxist elites have convinced the working-class black man that the working-class white man is his mortal enemy. They have convinced working-class black women to behave angrily towards working-class white women. The name "Karen" has become the modern version of the word nigger. Forget the fact that they live in the same neighborhoods, make roughly the same income, and want the same things from their politicians. Nope. The white man is evil because his Anglo-Saxon colonial relatives, 200 years ago, may have owned a plantation. Or whatever ignorant nonsense they come up with.

What do the voters get for enabling identity politics? Maybe some free gas (Henyard ran a free gas giveaway during her election campaign). They definitely get to live in crumbling, over-taxed, crime-infested neighborhoods. Millions of children will grow up in impoverished environments because of politicians like Tiffany Henyard. Millions of people will die before their time because politicians like Tiffany Henyard keep getting elected.

Henyard lost the Democrat nomination for Thornton Township supervisor and immediately cried voter suppression. Instead of taking the loss and repenting, she did what reality stars do—blamed everyone else, threatened lawsuits, and vowed a dramatic comeback. She's now talking about running as a write-in candidate.

Why accept reality when you can keep the drama going?

This applies to Tiffany Henyard and the voters nationwide. We can continue to treat politics and our lives like a Real Housewives show, or we can accept reality by taking our votes seriously. Identity politics is a lazy, half-baked solution to society's pressing issues.

The slippery slope of identity politics will lead to more NeNe Leakes wannabes in power.

Do we want to live in the United States of America or an episode of Real Politicians of Illinois?