The Latest Breaking News from Brandon Johnson

Being the Defund-the-Police guy is actually liberating.

Brandon Johnson defeated Paul Vallas in the runoff election for mayor of Chicago, Illinois, on April 4, 2023. Johnson received 51.4% of the vote and Vallas received 48.6%. They advanced from a field of nine candidates in the Feb. 28 general election.

"Everybody needs to understand this...Abortion rights are a winning issue."

Welcome to the Thursday, April 6, Brew. 

It starts with declaring independence — in action, not words — from the powerful Chicago Teachers Union. City Hall belongs to every Chicagoan, and Johnson will eventually have to make decisions that CTU and other unions won’t like. That’s part of the job.

Progressive Brandon Johnson narrowly defeated the more conservative Democrat Paul Vallas in a highly-anticipated vote.

Johnson won 29 of 50 wards, including a clean sweep of majority African-American wards. He won six Hispanic majority wards to Vallas’ nine. Johnson sealed the deal along the progressive-minded north lakefront and the hipster Milwaukee Avenue corridor.

What I’ve heard repeatedly is that, much like teachers, police officers are being asked to do their job and someone else’s job,” the mayor-elect told the Sun-Times.

The union "has an outsized impact on working families who have no other choice on where to send their children...that power, combined with a mayor who is essentially a wholly owned subsidiary, would make them a dangerous force," says one former Chicago Public Schools executive.

Once Johnson and voters know how city departments are doing, it will be easier for him to obtain broad support for necessary corrections.

CHICAGO — On his first day as Chicago’s mayor-elect, Brandon Johnson echoed his winning promise to rethink the city’s approach to public safety, while his lame-duck predecessor Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned him to show humility to first responders upon the heels of another firefighter death in the city.