Brandon Johnson has just won Chicago’s mayoral race and now some are curious to know where the new mayor’s political views lie – is he a liberal or a conservative?
Late on Tuesday, April 4, Chicago mayoral election results confirmed Brandon Johnson had beat Paul Vallas, securing at least 51.4 percent of the votes.
Johnson, a union organizer endorsed by the teachers’ union, was formerly the Cook County commissioner. Combatting crime was a central issue in many of the election debates, and Johnson wielded his experience in the field to beat out tough-on-crime Paul Vallas.
But what are the mayor-elect’s political views? Is Brandon Johnson a liberal (meaning Democrat) or a Republican? Let’s take a look.
Is Brandon Johnson a liberal (Democrat) or a Republican?
You could view Brandon Johnson’s politics as liberal. The Chicago mayor-elect is aligned with the Democrats and the word “progressive” has been bandied around when describing his ambitions for the Windy City.
Initially considered an underdog in the mayoral race, Johnson secured the support of many liberal groups. This included the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), SEIU-affiliated unions, Working Families Party, and progressive network Our Revolution, which is aligned with Bernie Sanders.
Brandon Johnson’s political views explored
Brandon Johnson is a Democrat and has relatively liberal views. Throughout the election campaign, Johnson and Vallas were pitted at two ends of their party’s political spectrum.
Read Related Also: Report: ‘Terrific’ 22-year-old could leave Tottenham along with Conte, AC Milan keen
Public safety and crime were at the heart of this election. The proposed plans for Chicago illustrate how Johnson and Vallas’ political views differ. While Vallas called for law-and-order, backed by the city’s firefighters and police unions, Johnson laid out intentions to invest in addressing the root causes of crime, like mental health and instability.
Johnson previously supported the call to “defund the police” after the killing of George Floyd in 2020. However, Johnson currently opposes any cuts to police budgets. Throughout his campaign, Johnson has expressed his intention of hiring 200 new detectives to focus on solving and deterring crimes in Chicago.
The mayor-elect has called for expanding social programs and new taxes. A former teacher, Johnson also laid out his intentions to help Chicago’s youth deal with jobs and affordable housing for all.
Johnson beat out a ‘Republican in disguise’
Traditionally, Chicago and other major cities in Illinois have voted heavily Democratic. It comes as no surprise then that the two main candidates for Chicago Mayor were both Democrats.
Paul Vallas, like Brandon Johnson, has a longstanding connection with the party. However, he has been described as a “Republican in disguise” in the New York Times’ account of the election.
In his acceptance speech, Johnson said that Chicagoans had chosen “hope over fear” in this election.
In other news, Is Brandon Johnson a liberal? Political views of Chicago’s mayor-elect explored
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘677672980820926’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
