Chicago Launches a Naming Contest for Ice-Abolishing Vehicles

Chicago is collecting submissions for its fourth annual snowplow naming contest and, if social media serves as a weather vane, the city is about to be absolutely inundated with one poetic submission that literally describes what a snowplow does: abolish ice.

“You already know what time it is, Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) tweeted on Wednesday. “Submit your snowplow names to http://Chicagoshovels[dot]org by January 10, 2026.” According to his post, residents will get to pick the top six, which will then name each snowplow for each of the Windy City’s six “snow districts.”

You already know what time it is, Chicago. Submit your snowplow names to https://t.co/4jU8gIyF3W by January 10, 2026 to participate in the fourth annual ‘You Name a Snowplow’ contest. Residents will pick the top six, and those names will represent one snowplow in each of the… pic.twitter.com/VzG4Zr0DJx

— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) December 17, 2025

“Everyone else go home,” one Chicagoan posted to BlueSky. “This is the year we secure ABOLISH ICE on a Chicago Snowplow.”

“‘ABOLISH ICE’ wins every year, but time and time again the name is rejected,” another tweeted. “Perhaps it will have more salience now.”

“Chicago is naming another snowplow,” another wrote, attaching a screenshot of their submission. “You know what to do.”

I mean, read the room, Brandon. Chicago’s been under siege since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz in September, and DHS goons led by Nazi-shaped Gregory Bovino have since terrorized Halloween parades, pepper-sprayed a baby, and led to a 515% surge in arrests. (All of this, of course, has come as a part of Trump’s ongoing efforts to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.) And according to Justice Department records from November, 97% of the people detained had no criminal record at the time of their arrest.

The first snowplow naming contests began in 2006, after Scotland introduced the tradition as a competition for primary school students, and it’s since been adopted by U.S. states like Michigan, Minnesota, and Vermont. Minnesota was one of the first to start collecting submissions in 2020—as a way of keeping citizens engaged during the pandemic—but in 2021, the state’s Department of Transportation had to remove “Abolish ICE” from a shortlisted final round of entries, and the 2025-26 contest rules specify that any political names will be disqualified.

No such rule exists for Chicago’s contest, however and given the Windy City’s been a focus of Trump’s mass deportation campaign for no reason other than Illinois’ sanctuary policies, it’s not surprising that “Abolish ICE” stands out as an obvious option for the city’s snow plows.