Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson dons an apron
“No one should be too poor to live in one of the richest cities — Chicago — in one of the richest countries — America — at the richest time in the history of the world,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the opening keynote speaker, told the Netroots Nation 23 conference on Thursday. “There is literally more than enough for everybody. Everybody. No one should lose at the expense of someone else winning.”
“Now, the soul of Chicago was on full display tonight because you see, and you can feel it in the air,” said Johnson, 47, a former public schoolteacher. “This multicultural intergenerational movement that has propelled us into this moment where we don’t have to shrink and we don’t have to hide from our values. We can actually run on our principles and values and win.”
After the speech, Johnson and other officials spent an hour serving food and drinks to several thousand attendees as part of his effort to promote new legislation that would raise pay for tipped workers in the city. Johnson plans to introduce the measure at this month’s City Council meeting.
Johnson in April won an upset runoff victory over Paul Vallas, the candidate backed by the Chicago Police Union, the Chamber of Commerce, and other establishment Democrats. Vallas ran a traditional tough-on-crime campaign that tried to brand Johnson as a radical out to “defund the police.”
In the final stretch of the campaign, Vallas received endorsements from both Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), a close ally to Obama, and Arne Duncan, Obama’s former secretary of education, who penned an op-ed lauding the candidate’s record as CEO of Chicago Public Schools. Obamaworld was said to be “coalescing” around Vallas. But in the end, their endorsements proved inconsequential.
Johnson garnered his own set of endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), as well as local fixtures such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But what ultimately won Johnson the day was the ground game his campaign ran across the city, tapping into the infrastructure that the Chicago Teachers Union and Working Families Party—his two main backers—had established over decades. It was a version of the people power that Obama himself rode to the presidency in 2008, now in the hands of a progressive who beat the Obama machine.
When it came to fundraising, Paul Vallas had Brandon Johnson beat. Days before the April 4 mayoral runoff, Vallas reported contributions of over $19 million, more than half of that coming from 44 individuals or organizations. Johnson clocked in at just over $11 million, largely from unions. But where Johnson had the upper hand, and what ultimately propelled him to an upset victory, was his community outreach — appealing to supportive voters to turn out to the polls.
Johnson’s field team contacted half a million voters in the campaign’s last days. Johnson bested Vallas by 15,000 votes.
Video here. Johnson speech begins at timestamp 1:27:00.