Chicago City Wire

Chicago mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson welcomed top Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders to town in the final days of is campaign in hopes of rallying voters. on Mar 30th.

“We must address that crisis, but we must do it in a way that is smart and effective,” Sanders said. “And that means not only high quality and non-racist law enforcement, it means that we must address the epidemic of mental illness, the epidemic of drug abuse, the epidemic of poverty and the epidemic of guns on the street. And that is something that Brandon Johnson understands.”

Mayoral candidates Johnson and Paul Vallas will face each other during the April 4 election after incumbent Lori Lightfoot failed to make the runoff.

A two-time presidential candidate, Sanders endorsed Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, earlier this month in his April 4, runoff showdown against former Chicago Public Schools CEO Vallas and during his visit urged voters to turn out in mass for him.

“People are acting out of desperation,” Johnson said to WGN. “You have to pay attention to cries people have, there’s no way to embrace [looting].”

Among others, Sanders was joined at the packed house event at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena by Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), Reps. Jonathan Jackson and Delia Ramirez, Martin Luther King III and American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.

Johnson began his career as a teacher at Jenner Academy and then at Westinghouse College Prep. His website noted he saw how school closures, unemployment, and gun violence impacted students and their communities.

Johnson’s campaign has stressed that as mayor, he would focus investment on the “root causes” of crime rather than hiring more police or increasing police department funding, adding that he is convinced more officers alone will not be enough to curb all the city's rising crime and violence.