Chicago Mayoral Candidate Brandon Johnson: For a City Where Everyone Thrives

Editor’s note: The excerpts below are from the speech of Chicago mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson following the city’s February 28 election. Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas will face each other in a run-off election on April 4, 2023.

They said that this would never happen. I am so freaking proud, because we did this. You know, a few months ago, they said they didn’t know who I was. Well, if you didn’t know, now you know. There are so many people who are responsible for this moment and I thank you all. Of course, I want to thank the author and the finisher of my faith. That is my God. Because you all know the fifth floor is going to really be saved and sanctified. And of course I want to thank my family. I’m not here without them, especially for my wife. My wife of 25 years come June. A black woman will still be in charge. Of course, to the workers of this city, SEIU, ACII, SEIU 73, the Chicago Teachers Union, Cook County Colleges Teachers Union, the IFT the AFT, and the baddest Independent Political Organization, the United Working Families. There are so many elected officials here and leaders from across the city. Thank you all. We have shifted the political dynamics in this city.

But I want to acknowledge all the other candidates . . . I may not have always agreed with you all, but running for office is difficult and is an at of service. Let’s give all the other candidates a round of applause. And, if you voted for one of those other candidates, I want you to know that I’m running to be the mayor of you too. And I’m going to work just as hard as I have to get to this point to earn your support.

And I want to thank all the Chicagoans who made this happen. You went door to door, you made phone calls. Yes, some of y’all have been harassing your family members for months…You turned our hope into reality because you believe that a better Chicago is possible. But guess what we get to do now? Y’all, we get to turn the page of the politics of old because with our voices and our votes, we’ve come together as one city to say we deserve a Chicago that is better, stronger, safer for everyone. Yes, no matter where you live, no matter where you look, what you look like, you deserve to have a better, stronger, safer Chicago.

Whether you live in Jefferson Park or Morgan Park or McKinley Park, or Gage Park or Humboldt Park. You deserve a better, stronger, safer Chicago. Yes, a city where you can thrive regardless of who you love or how much money you have in your bank account. A city that respects the workers who keep it running, that actually values them by building new affordable housing. Yes, blazing a pathway for home ownership. You deserve that, Chicago. A city where the trains actually run on time, and where the public schools are fully resourced and where every single child in the city gets to have their needs met. A city where young people have real year-round jobs where we can actually solve the violent crime that exists in this city. We deserve that, Chicago. Those of us who are facing mental health crisis, you deserve a social worker, a counselor, and mental health centers that are open across the city.

So in other words, tonight is about building a Chicago that truly invests in our people. You know, the most radical thing that we can do as a city is to love the people of Chicago. Now, some of y’all may have heard this before, but my grandfather and my father who is here tonight, were both pastors. Yes. Now I’m the true son of a preacher. Loving people and investing in people. That is the way that my father raised me. Because the Bible says where your heart is your treasure will be also.

And the finances of this city belong to the people of the city. So we’re going to invest in the people of the city. Now, I grew up in a very large family. It was 10 of us with one bathroom, plus my parents were foster parents. We had so much going on in our home on a day-to-day basis; it felt like teaching in the Chicago public schools. But I grew up in a home where sometimes the ends did not always meet.

I know what it’s like to come home and the water is not on. I know what it’s like to have a long orange extension cord from our window to our neighbor’s window. I know what a disinvested community looks like because I taught in Cabrini Green USA. And our children from Cabrini Green could see and touch and practically walk to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the entire city of Chicago. From their back windows and out of their front windows, bulldozers, staring them down, preparing to destroy their public housing.

That ain’t right. It captures the essence of the city of Chicago, this tale of two cities. But that’s why I’m looking forward to becoming the next mayor of the city of Chicago because we are going to finally retire this tale of two cities and usher in a better, stronger, safer, united city. The disinvestment we’ve experienced in this city for too long; it’s been chronic. It’s been systemic. I’ll never forget one of my students who had a rough day. Well, all of my students, many times had rough days. But there was one particular day where we were all having a rough day together and we stopped for a second to reflect. And one of my students looked me in the face and said, Mr. Johnson, you should not be teaching here. She says, you should be teaching at a good school. That ain’t right.

It broke my heart then and it breaks my heart today. I wanted to change the system. And that’s why I became an organizer fighting alongside of teachers across America, because it’s not just what we’re fighting for, it’s who we are fighting for. And no child under a Johnson administration will ever feel like they are not good enough to have the best. And that’s why I took that fight as an organizer and I became a Cook County commissioner because I believe that we need to have political leadership that actually speaks to the interest of working people. And that’s why on the county board I fought to expand healthcare. We put hundreds of millions of dollars into violence prevention. We’ve built a balanced budget and we’ve done it under the most ridiculous and the hardest circumstances. And if we can pass a multi-billion dollar budget on the county board, we can certainly pass a multi-billion dollar budget when I’m the mayor of the City of Chicago. You know, I told you I would always tell you the truth, Chicago. I’m always going to keep it 100% with you Chicago.

And as good as we feel right now, I’m going to tell you the truth because there’s another candidate that made it into the runoff tonight. His name is Paul Vallas. So we are about to get real, real. If you are not familiar with Paul Vallas, let me tell you a little bit about Paul Vallas. See, Paul Vallas is someone who is supported by the January 6th insurrection. He switched parties when President Barack Obama became the president of the U.S. He went as far as to say that he is more of a Republican than anything else. These are his words. He said that he fundamentally opposes abortion. These are direct quotes. As head of the Chicago Public Schools, he ran the teacher’s pension fund into the ground, closed neighborhood schools, and punished students who were in need. He took it to another region of the Earth. When he went to Hurricane Katrina, Paul went, when? After Hurricane Katrina, Paul went to New Orleans and privatized three quarters of the city’s public schools, which caused the largest decline of Black educators. He left similar messes in Philadelphia, Connecticut, and of course right here in Chicago. Yes.

This is the truth about Paul Vallas. He has literally failed everywhere he has gone. In fact, Paul Vallas is the author of The Tale of Two Cities. He is backed by the same forces who have done nothing as crime has paralyzed our city. He’s backed by the same supporters who have failed to enforce the consent decree even after Adam Toledo and Laquan McDonnald were killed. The forces who are sticking their heads in the sand as our city’s budgets go deeper and deeper in the red year after year, with property taxes going up while our schools stayed underfunded. Those same forces are trying to reinvent the very person who’s responsible for the mess that we’re living in, Chicago. We cannot have this man as the mayor of the city of Chicago. Our children and families across Chicago can’t afford it. Paul Vallas has friends who will throw everything at our movement. They’re going say everything they can invent, lies to stop our movement. You know, they’ve been lying on me so bad y’all. I wouldn’t put it past them…

I’m for real. And what’s so messed up about Paul is that every budget he has looked at, he has failed. I’m the only person who has presented a balanced budget plan that protects the interests of workers without raising property taxes. So they’ll say, we’re too accountable to working people. These forces want us to feel bad because we want people to have paychecks. They’ll say whatever it takes because they like the city the way it is. So here’s the truth. As good as it feels right now, this moment is just the beginning. Chicago, we got work to do and we’re willing to put in that work. If tonight is proof of anything, it’s proof that anything is possible, Chicago. We can build a Chicago as big and as generous as our promises that City Hall can truly belong to the people. Yes, I can’t do this by myself, y’all. Are y’all with me?

We have to take this movement to City Hall to make sure that we give people a guarantee. No longer can we leave it to chance that our children will have quality schools, good paying jobs in an environment that speaks to justice. We can’t leave it to chance because I believe in us,Chicago. We can have a better Chicago. We can.

Now look, we may not always agree all the time. Trust me, I come from a large family. We fight over the Thanksgiving menu and it’s the same menu every year. But there’s one thing that I know for sure, that these challenges are not too big, right? Because we didn’t just get here, y’all. We’ve been about this work.

And so for the sake of our children, for the sake of our families, we can defeat the structural inequality. We have built a multiracial, multi-generational movement from one end of the city to the other end of the city; we can build a better, stronger, safer Chicago. And tonight is just the beginning. So do me a big favor, Chicago, so the whole world can know you believe deep down in your soul, Brandon is better. God bless you, Chicago. A better Chicago is possible.