By Jake Hanawalt and Kobi Guillory

Chicago, IL – Thousands of Chicagoans lined up around the block to celebrate the launch of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s re-election campaign at the DuSable Black History Museum on the South Side of Chicago. Overcast skies and drizzling rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of Johnson’s supporters. The crowd represented a vast range of community organizations, unions, faith-based groups, elected officials, youth organizations, and individuals in working and oppressed communities.

“We came together four years ago and said ‘It’s time to get a brother from Chicago on the fifth floor. Someone who will fight for the working class,’” said State Senator Graciela Guzmán, kicking off the event by describing Johnson’s first campaign.

“After generations of trying to speak truth to power, we finally have someone who is speaking truth in power,” added Rev. Tanya Lozano, founder of Healthy Hood Chicago.

“Brother Brandon Johnson does not just represent us, Brother Brandon Johnson is us,” continued Lozano, whose family has brought forward some of the most prolific working-class organizers in Chicago’s history, including Rudy Lozano and Emma Lozano.

“For decades we were told that, to keep people safe, we need mass incarceration and policing. Mayor Johnson showed that we keep people safe through care,” said 33rd Ward Alder Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez.

“The time to organize is now!” declared 20th Ward Alder Jeanette Taylor, encouraging the crowd to work with the Johnson administration in advancing its progressive goals. Taylor also spoke on the history of the predominantly Black 20th Ward, which is home to both the DuSable Museum and Dyett High School, which Taylor went on hunger strike to keep from closing in 2015.

Taylor, Rodriguez Sanchez, Guzmán, and dozens of progressive elected officials and union leaders took to the stage to voice their support of Mayor Johnson. Among them were school board presidential candidate Hilario Dominguez and District 5A incumbent Jitu Brown, who was also one of the Dyett hunger strikers.

“Rebuilding a village takes longer than one term. We had decades of disinvestment and that's not gonna be fixed in four years,” said Chicago Teachers Union member Ashley Davis.

Davis and other speakers uplifted the Johnson administration’s successes. These include investments in schools, mental healthcare, youth programs and violence prevention, as well as minimum wage increases and childcare for working people. Speakers also mentioned Johnson’s stances against ICE and for Palestine.

“He made Chicago one of the first cities in the nation to call for a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Imam Tariq El-Amin, referring to Johnson’s tiebreaker vote on a ceasefire resolution in 2024.

A number of speakers, including Johnson himself, cited the fact that in 2025 Chicago saw its lowest murder rate in 61 years.

“They said there would be blood in the streets and violence would run amok,” Johnson said, referring to a statement by Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara in 2023.

The FOP has spent the last four years trying to undermine the Johnson administration and the District councilors elected to hold police accountable. The FOP recently endorsed Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.

“The ultrarich have done a lot to confuse my record,” said Johnson, explaining why racist groups like the FOP and billionaires like Michael Sacks and the Pritzker family are opposing his reelection. “The same people who closed schools spent millions lying about what we’re doing.”

“This city is better, stronger and safer than the city I inherited,” Johnson said.

He then stressed the importance of the working-class character and cross-racial unity of the coalition that brought him into office. “We refuse to allow authoritarianism to separate us by race when we are united by class.”

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