Amid a spike in crime across the city in recent years, far-left Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for another term in office. The February election marked the first time in 40 years that an incumbent Chicago mayor failed to secure re-election.
While some analysts believed the backlash over her approach would convince locals to vote for Paul Vallas, a somewhat moderate Democrat who campaigned on a relatively tough-on-crime platform. Instead, Chicago voters elected another extreme leftist who vowed to further defund the city’s police force while raising taxes on citizens.
Although Vallas maintained a narrow lead over his rival for much of the day during Tuesday’s runoff election, Brandon Johnson emerged as the projected winner late in the evening.
Brandon Johnson ran his entire campaign on anti-whiteness
He just won his race for Chicago mayor pic.twitter.com/46JYXYUzlU
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 5, 2023
Technically, there were more absentee ballots to tally after the polls closed, but many outlets felt confident in calling the race for Johnson.
The former Cook County commissioner shied away from discussing his own record during much of the election, opting instead to denounce Vallas as a Republican in disguise. A review of his prior public positions, however, reveals what he really thinks about addressing law enforcement.
Following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, nearly three years ago, he introduced a resolution called “Justice for Black Lives” designed to “redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement.”
He insisted that public money spent on policing was a “waste” and even spoke out against Lightfoot because of her opposition to defunding the police, claiming that she was “on the wrong side of history.”
Leaving no doubt about his true intentions, Johnson subsequently offered a full-throated endorsement of the left’s “defund the police” rhetoric.
“I don’t look at it as a slogan,” he said in 2021. “It’s an actual real political goal.”
The same year, there were nearly 800 homicides in the city, which marked the highest total in about 25 years.
Things have not gotten better since then, at least from the perspective of ordinary Chicagoans. In a survey earlier this year, “crime and public safety” was by far the most important issue on the minds of voters.
