Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) has all but made it official, telling the New York Times on Sunday that he will seek a second term as the mayor of the city that repeatedly logs the nation’s highest number of homicides.
Johnson, 50, talking to the newspaper at his downtown campaign office, said he plans to “double down” on his progressive agenda and “push for a city that is accessible” to the working class.
“I made a commitment through the lens of working-class leadership that we would take on the billionaires and the corporate interests to prioritize working people to build the safest, most affordable big city in America,” he told the outlet. “That’s what we’re doing.”
Johnson also posted a “four more years” video to social media Sunday, in which he touted his accomplishments as mayor:
The mayor has quite a task ahead, particularly when it comes to safety in the nation’s third-largest city, with gun violence rampant for years in the struggling neighborhoods of the city’s south side.
Over Labor Day weekend alone, as Breitbart News reported, 38 people were shot, eight of them fatally, in the Democrat-run Windy City. During the last weekend of August, 40 were shot, two of them fatally.
For the 12-month period preceding September 4, there were 435 homicides reported in the city, according to ABC7’s Neighborhood Safety Tracker, which noted the risk of being murdered in Chicago is “already considerably higher than the risk of dying in a vehicle crash in Illinois.”
Several cities across the country have higher homicide rates when measured against population, but none come close to Chicago when it comes to total body count.
There was some encouraging murder news, as the city is averaging eight homicides a week, which is down from ten in 2019 and under the yearly average of the past three years.
Johnson has been criticized by moderates and conservatives for sanctuary-city policies and opposition to Trump administration immigration crackdowns. That included Johnson issuing an “ICE On Notice” order directing Chicago police to investigate federal immigration agents.
According to city records, Johnson dispensed nearly $640 million to care for illegals in a two-year period instead of spending it on Chicago’s troubled public school system, Breitbart News reported.
WATCH — Everyone Sees Chicago as a War Zone, Except for the Democrats Running It:
Johnson, a former labor organizer who ousted the incumbent mayor, Lori Lightfoot, to win election in 2023, plans to formally announce his re-election campaign at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center on Sunday, the Times reported.
The nonpartisan mayoral election is set for February 2027. A runoff would be held in April if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote.
Challengers are lining up to take on the mayor, including Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who is considered a more moderate progressive than Johnson.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), from Chicago’s north side, has also declared his candidacy, as well as state comptroller Susana Mendoza.
The election will be a “formidable test” of Johnson’s “brand of progressive politics,” the Times wrote.
Breitbart News contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
Read the full article here
