Brandon Johnson is the winner of the 2023 Chicago Mayoral runoff election and is now the mayor of Chicago.
Johnson, the former teacher and Cook County Commissioner, won the spot on the fifth floor of city hall tonight. Chicago’s progressive candidate won the favor of Chicagoans from around the city through his economic ideas and support from many unions around the city.
Johnson won against his opponent Paul Vallas, the self-described ‘moderate’ candidate. They were polling within 5% against each other, with Vallas pulling ahead within the last few days. Despite this, Johnson was able to secure a lead that gave him the position of Chicago’s mayor.
Johnson at the Beginning
Johnson was polling almost last at the start of this election, with very little recognition until very close to the primary election in February. The west side native has since gotten endorsements from key political figures, such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who held a rally for him last week at UIC.
Johnson Plan of Chicago
Critiquing both the Chicago Police Department and Lori Lightfoot, he led the charge for a better Chicago for working-class citizens.
Johnson’s plan for a better Chicago, the plan that won him the support of so many Chicagoans, includes better social services. This means more funding for all schools in the Chicago Public School System, universal childcare, better use of the police force, and more money to Invest in the South/West.
Primary Election
In the primary election, his opponent Vallas secured 34% of the vote. Vallas was only 16% of the votes away from winning the election outright. Johnson followed with 20% of the boat, causing the election to be divisive; Vallas secured a majority of his votes from wealthier neighborhoods on the North Side, while union-backed Johnson got more votes from Chicago’s working class.
Election Results
Johnson ended up winning 51.42% of the votes in this runoff election against Vallas. This, compared to Vallas’s 48.58% put him winning against Vallas even with mail-in results. Interestingly the election came down to a relatively small number of votes, with Johnson pulling just ahead of Vallas.
At 7:00 PM when the votes started being reported on the Chicago elections website, Vallas had a 4% lead over Johnson. The tides quickly turned, though, as of 7:30 PM Johnson and Vallas were within 1% of each other.
By 8:00 PM the election results had given Johnson a slight lead, which only continued into the night. By 9:00 PM, Johnson had 51.20% of the vote, with Vallas only having 48.80%. Vallas is said to have conceded this election around this time. By 9:30 Johnson had a lead of almost 16,000 votes.
A total of 503,382 votes were cast — almost only a third of all registered voters in the city of Chicago.
Election day in Chicago consisted of ferocious thunderstorms and threats of hail and stormy weather as a repeat of Friday’s unforgiving weather came to fruition. Voters were told to vote early ahead of the weather nonetheless.
Brandon Election Party
At 9:32 p.m. the Associated Press called the Chicago Mayoral Runoff election in favor of Brandon Johnson. His supporters in McCormick Place cheered as the news of his win ran through the crowd.
Brandon spoke to his supporters and thanked his opponent Paul Vallas for putting up a good fight. He also spoke of the importance of representing all facets of Chicago in his mayoral administration.
“There is more than enough for everybody in the city of Chicago,” said Johnson.
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson will be sworn in as mayor of Chicago in the coming weeks.
Written by Caroline Buehler
Sources:
Chicago: Chicago Elections
Featured and Inset Image Courtesy of Caroline Buehler
