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Union organizer Brandon Johnson wins Chicago mayor race


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Brandon Johnson, a union organizer and former trainer, was elected as Chicago’s next mayor Tuesday in a significant victory for the Democratic Get together’s progressive wing because the closely blue metropolis grapples with excessive crime and monetary challenges.

Johnson, a Cook dinner County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Academics Union, gained a close race over former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, who was backed by the police union. Johnson, 47, will succeed Lori Lightfoot, the primary Black lady and first overtly homosexual individual to be town’s mayor.

Lightfoot turned the primary Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose her reelection bid when she completed third in a crowded February contest.

Johnson’s victory within the nation’s third-largest metropolis capped a outstanding trajectory for a candidate who was little identified when he entered the race final yr. He climbed to the highest of the sector with organizing and monetary assist from the politically influential Chicago Academics Union and high-profile endorsements from progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Sanders appeared at a rally for Johnson within the last days of the race.

Taking the stage Tuesday evening for his victory speech, a jubilant Johnson thanked his supporters for serving to usher in “a brand new chapter within the historical past of our metropolis.” He promised that beneath his administration, town would look out for everybody, no matter how a lot cash they’ve, whom they love or the place they arrive from.

“Tonight is the start of a Chicago that actually invests in all of its individuals,” Johnson stated.

Johnson, who’s Black, recalled rising up in a poor household, instructing at a faculty in Cabrini Inexperienced, a infamous former public housing advanced, and shielding his personal younger youngsters from gunfire of their West Aspect neighborhood.

He referenced civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and known as his victory a continuation of their legacies. He additionally famous that he was talking on the anniversary of King’s assassination.

“At this time the dream is alive,” Johnson stated, “and so as we speak we rejoice the revival and the resurrection of town of Chicago.”

It was a momentous win for progressive organizations such because the academics union, with Johnson profitable the very best workplace of any lively academics union member in latest historical past, leaders say. For each progressives and the celebration’s extra average wing, the Chicago race was seen as a check of organizing energy and messaging.

Johnson’s win additionally comes as teams akin to Our Revolution, a strong progressive advocacy group, push to win extra places of work in native and state workplace, together with in upcoming mayoral elections in Philadelphia and elsewhere.

Vallas, chatting with his personal supporters Tuesday evening, stated that he had known as Johnson and that he anticipated him to be the subsequent mayor. Some within the crowd appeared to jeer the information, however Vallas urged them to place apart variations and assist the subsequent mayor in “the daunting work forward.”

“This marketing campaign that I ran to carry town collectively wouldn’t be a marketing campaign that fulfills my ambitions if this election goes to divide us,” Vallas stated.

In an announcement, Lightfoot additionally congratulated Johnson and stated her administration will collaborate together with his staff through the transition.

Johnson and Vallas have been the highest two vote-getters within the all-Democrat however formally nonpartisan February race, which moved to the runoff as a result of no candidate obtained over 50%.

On Tuesday, Johnson took most of the predominantly Black southern and western areas the place Lightfoot gained in February, together with the northern neighborhoods the place he was the top-vote getter again then, based on precinct-level outcomes launched by election officers. Vallas did properly within the northwest and southwest areas which can be house to massive numbers of metropolis staff, simply as he did in February.

The competition surfaced longstanding tensions amongst Democrats, with Johnson and his supporters blasting Vallas — who was endorsed by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s second-ranking Democrat — as too conservative and a Republican in disguise.

Each candidates have deep roots within the Democratic Get together, although with vastly totally different backgrounds and views.

After instructing center and highschool, Johnson helped mobilize academics, together with throughout a historic 2012 strike by means of which the Chicago Academics Union elevated its organizing muscle and affect in metropolis politics. That has included combating for non-classroom points, akin to housing and psychological well being care.

Vallas, who completed first within the February contest, was the one white candidate in that nine-person subject. A former Chicago price range director, he later led faculties in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Among the many greatest disputes between Johnson and Vallas was how to address crime. Like many U.S. cities, Chicago noticed violent crime improve through the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting a 25-year excessive of 797 homicides in 2021, although the quantity decreased final yr and town has a decrease homicide fee than others within the Midwest, akin to St. Louis.

Vallas, 69, stated he would rent tons of extra law enforcement officials, whereas Johnson stated he didn’t plan to chop the variety of officers, however that the present system of policing isn’t working. Johnson was compelled to defend previous statements expressing assist for “defunding” police — one thing he insisted he wouldn’t do as mayor.

However Johnson argued that as an alternative of investing extra in policing and incarceration, town ought to give attention to psychological well being therapy, inexpensive housing for all and jobs for youth. He has proposed a plan he says will raise $800 million by taxing “ultrarich” people and companies, together with a per-employee “head tax” on employers and a further tax on lodge room stays.

That plan isn’t any positive factor, as some members of the Metropolis Council and the state Legislature — whose assist could be wanted — have already got expressed opposition.

Resident Chema Fernandez, 25, voted for Johnson as a chance to maneuver on from what he described as “the politics of outdated.” He stated he noticed Vallas as being according to earlier mayors akin to Rahm Emanuel, Lightfoot and Richard M. Daley, who haven’t labored out nice for locations like his neighborhood on the southwest facet, which has seen many years of disinvestment.

“I believe we have to give the chance for insurance policies that will really change a few of our situations,” Fernandez stated.


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