Brandon Johnson projected to win Chicago mayoral election
Johnson will succeed Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who lost her bid for reelection when she came in third place in February’s general election. Political analysts said Lightfoot bore the brunt of the blame for rising frustration with increasing crime across the city.
“To the Chicagoans who did not vote for me: I care about you. I value you. And I want to hear from you. I want to work with you. And I’ll be the mayor for you, too,” Johnson said at his victory party at the Marriot Marquis, near McCormick Place in the South Loop neighborhood.
“Tonight is a gateway to a new future for the city. A city where you can thrive regardless of who you love or how much money you have in your bank account,” he said as he was cheered on by more than 1,000 supporters.
Johnson’s win over Vallas, a conservative Democrat, was a major victory for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Johnson had endorsements from prominent national figures on the left, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders attended a rally for Johnson in the final days of the campaign.
The candidates’ stark differences in the first round were underscored by their highest-profile backers: For Johnson, the powerful, liberal Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), with which he is an organizer, and for Vallas, the Fraternal Order of Police. The next mayor will have to work with both groups in the coming round of contract negotiations and will be in charge of appointing the next public school CEO and police superintendent.
In a concession speech, Vallas said: “It’s clear, based on the results tonight, that the city is deeply divided. So tonight, even though, of course, we believe every vote should be counted, I called Brandon Johnson and told him that I absolutely expect him to be the next mayor of Chicago."
Lightfoot, who did not endorse either candidate for the runoff, also called for unity in a statement after the race was called.
“I congratulate Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson on his hard-fought runoff victory this evening," she said. “It is time for all of us as Chicagoans, regardless of our zip code or neighborhood, our race or ethnicity, the creator we worship, or who we love, to come together and recommit ourselves to uniting around our shared present and future. My entire team and I stand ready to collaborate throughout the transition period.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) also issued a statement congratulating Johnson and said he was “committed to a productive partnership” to make “Chicago an even better place to live, work, do business, and raise a family.”
Vallas entered the race as the front-runner, taking first place with nearly 33 percent of the vote in a nine-candidate field in February’s general election, in which he and Johnson both received more votes than Lightfoot. But his 11-point lead over Johnson shrank in recent weeks. A March 28 poll by Northwestern University showed the candidates in a dead heat, each with 44 percent of the vote.
The next mayor will face a major challenge in bringing the city together after such a heated race, said Tom Bowen, a longtime Democratic operative and principal and co-founder of New Chicago Consulting.
“There’s some inflammatory rhetoric coming from both sides on how bad the world will be if their preferred candidate loses. That’s not what’s really going to happen but they have whipped themselves into a fury about it and that’s the polarized partisan environment we live in today,” Bowen said before the polls closed. “So, what happens next is a lot of anger in much the same way that Donald Trump and Joe Biden never could really have a honeymoon period. The same thing will happen for the next Chicago mayor.”
Earlier in the day, Johnson and Vallas made their final pitches to voters at polling sites and at one point missed each other by 30 minutes at Manny’s Deli, the South Loop cafeteria where Election Day visits are a political tradition.
Vallas appeared at ease as he bantered with panelists on a local talk-radio program broadcasting from the restaurant. He shook hands with prominent political figures who had endorsed him in the race, including former Illinois secretary of state Jesse White.
He took one of his final campaign stops to remind voters of a theme he hit on for five weeks between the general election and runoff: “There is no substitute for experienced, accomplished leadership. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
A half-hour later, Johnson appeared with a large cohort of labor supporters and liberal politicians, including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who oversees the body on which Johnson serves.
Preckwinkle was optimistic about Johnson’s chances Tuesday, saying his “laser focus on equity” that he brought to the board in 2018 is the right direction for the city. Preckwinkle, who made history as one of two Black women in a 2019 runoff against Lightfoot, said she didn’t have any advice for Johnson.
“Because he’s going to win, and I didn’t,” she said with a laugh.
Former Chicago alderman Bob Fioretti, who supported Vallas, lingered after his candidate left to greet friends who were stumping for Johnson. Fioretti said despite the often divisive campaign rhetoric this season, both candidates offered solid options for voters and said the city would do well under whoever wins. But it’s Vallas’s centrist ideas on budget and taxes, he said, that are more in line with where the city’s voters are moving this cycle.
Ticking off the challenges that lie ahead of the next mayor, including negotiating new police and teacher contracts, closing a budget shortfall, revitalizing downtown and curbing crime, Fioretti said there’s one thing the winner could benefit from: “Somebody better have a magic wand.”
Both campaigns highlighted their strong ground game as they scrambled for the 50 percent of voters who didn’t pick either of them in the first round.
Vallas and Johnson both performed strongest with White voters in the general election, and the two are racing to lock up the Black voters who overwhelmingly backed Lightfoot, eliminated in the general after placing third, and the Latino majority who backed Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), the fourth-place finisher. Lightfoot was the first incumbent in 40 years to lose after a first term.
Both campaigns touted expansive field efforts like door knocking and phone banking, but turnout lagged by late afternoon Tuesday in wards that had the highest number of voters who picked neither Johnson nor Vallas in the first round.
Rodney Washington, 53, felt ambivalent about his choices as he left his polling site in the 28th Ward in West Garfield Park. He declined to say who he voted for, but said his preferred candidate did not make the runoff; in his precinct, 78 percent of voters backed a candidate other than Johnson or Vallas, according to a WBEZ data analysis.
Taxes, schools and safety were Washington’s top issues, but he criticized both campaigns as having “too much noise” around their positions.
“I voted for the lesser of two evils,” Washington said.
Chicago’s mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan, but all candidates this year ran as Democrats. During the general election, Johnson established himself as the most liberal choice, while Vallas was viewed as the most conservative candidate.
Both moved their messages closer to the center, particularly on the contest’s most dominant theme: crime.
Rameen Chapman, 43, said it was a relatively easy choice for him to back Johnson. He remembers Vallas’ time as head of Chicago’s school system as “a mess” and was not persuaded by his tough talk on crime.
“It’s Chicago — there’s always going to be crime,” Chapman said. “You go back to every mayor of Chicago and crime is up and down, up and down. It just depends on the election cycle.”
Johnson repeatedly distanced himself from past comments that were supportive of the movement to reduce police funding, while Vallas pivoted to talking about holding criminals accountable to communities in a message that’s “less law-and-order focused,” said Jason DeSanto, a lecturer at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law who studies political messaging, strategy and debate.
DeSanto said voters’ decision on Tuesday would reflect what he called the overarching question in this race: “Can voters trust me?”
“Every argument ultimately goes to that question because voters aren’t going to watch every debate or know every issue; they’re too busy,” DeSanto said. “In this race, I think what that means for Vallas as far as trust is, ‘Does he reflect the values of the city?’ For Johnson, it’s, ‘Am I willing to give this newcomer a chance?’”
Millions of dollars flowed into the race, with Vallas raising more than $17.6 million compared with Johnson’s more than $10 million, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.
Vallas’s backers included wealthy people with a history supporting Republican candidates and causes like school privatization, while the bulk of Johnson’s support came from CTU-aligned groups like the liberal United Working Families. The makeup of their donor bases fed into attack lines each faced.
Vallas ran Chicago Public School from 1995 to 2001 and since then has served as the schools executive for districts in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Conn., where he drew praise and criticism for his track record. Johnson was a middle and high school teacher in Chicago before working as a union organizer and later as a commissioner for Cook County, where he has served since 2018.
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