How the CTU marched from picket lines to political powerhouse

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who made it to the runoff for mayor with the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union. (Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times)

In 2013, Brandon Johnson was the Chicago Teachers Union’s deputy political director and was talking about having persuaded members to walk out the previous year in the union’s first strike in decades.

“Convincing our members to wear a red T-shirt on Friday was a task,” Johnson told a crowd at the Socialism 2013 conference in Rosemont. “It took us a year to convince CTU members that it’s OK to associate yourself with labor.”