Brandon Johnson or Paul Vallas for Chicago mayor? Voters have their say as city waits to learn who won
CHICAGO — After a lengthy and highly charged election season, Chicago voters have gone to the polls to choose between Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas for mayor.
Johnson campaigned on themes of racial justice and uplifting the working class, while Vallas ran with a one-track message to restore public safety in a city he portrayed as desperately needing rescue after four years of crises.
Early returns suggested an extremely close race, with only a few hundred votes separating the foes with nearly 90% of precincts reporting unofficial totals.
Johnson, a 47-year-old longtime Chicago Teachers Union leader, announced his candidacy for mayor in October by the Jenner Academy school building, where he started his career in education at the mostly Black elementary school that had served children who lived in the infamous Cabrini-Green public housing complex next door.
Vallas, 69, threw his hat into the ring last summer with a pitch that he could restore competency at City Hall and morale to a “degraded” police department. It was his fourth bid for elected office and the first where he was successful. In 2019, Vallas ran for Chicago mayor but finished an embarrassing ninth in a historic field of 14 candidates.
The affable but gutsy Johnson first won public office in 2018 when he defeated Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, who earned the ire of organized labor by voting against Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s so-called “pop tax.” There, he
