Before Chicago’s mayoral election last week, the top two electoral performances in the city (in my eyes) were that of Anton Cermak and Harold Washington. 

Cermak, who was born in Bohemia, won his mayoral race in 1931 by defeating then-incumbent William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson. That election marked the end of the Anglo-Saxon power structure in the city and ushered in Cermak’s new coalition leadership. 

Washington, a Black congressman from Bronzeville, a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, beat then-incumbent Jane Byrne and Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley in a tight 1983 Democratic primary. Washington mobilized the political force of Black Chicagoans to win the primary and then a divisive general election. His victory cemented the end of the old Chicago machine Cermak brought about and acted as a sea change in Chicago politics that lasted just over four years. 

We saw a similarly strong electoral performance when Chicago Teachers Union organizer and Cook County Board Commissioner Brandon Johnson defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO and perennial electoral candidate Paul Vallas just last week. Johnson secured his place in history on Tuesday by uniting voters across demographics.

Johnson’s win was astounding for two reasons. Though people predicted the Johnson and Vallas map would be similar to that as Harold Washington’s elections, Johnson won a more even spread among majority-Black and majority-white wards. Altogether, Johnson won 30 wards as of this writing, and his base may present a new voter coalition of Chicagoans.

Second, Johnson was an active member of the Chicago Teachers Union, first as a teacher and then as a union organizer. His election could mean a more collaborative and respectful relationship between the city and the CTU, which have clashed over issues such as school funding, reopening plans, testing policies, and teacher evaluations. 

At the start of Johnson’s campaign in 2022, he wasn’t a well-known figure. Through his campaign efforts, progressive message and union-backed funding, notably from the Chicago Teachers Union, he made it to the second stage.

Vallas, by contrast, ran a campaign that Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader called the “great white hope” campaign. As the only white man in the election, Vallas aimed to help Chicago recover from Lori Lightfoot’s “wreckage.” He said he ran for mayor to combat high crime rates and a lack of a business-friendly infrastructure. 

Johnson defied expectations and beat Paul Vallas to become Chicago’s next mayor. Only one public poll — from IZQ Strategies — showed Johnson ahead while pollsters like Victory Research and Emerson Polling had Vallas ahead. I believe many people saw Vallas as a safe bet to win because he looked like Chicago mayors in the past: a white man.

This election in particular proves the importance of a diverse base for a Chicago politician. 

Johnson decisively won many majority-Black wards. He also won a good amount of white-majority and plurality neighborhoods, including Northalsted and Rogers Park. Finally, Brandon Johnson experienced a mixed bag with Latine voters, but won enough support to win neighborhoods like Little Village and Humboldt Park. 

At the moment, Johnson is up by about four points, with mail-in ballots anticipated to increase his margin. This victory would be the closest in my lifetime, and the closest since Washington’s first mayoral win.

It is very clear that Johnson has a chance to live up to the legacies of Cermak and Washington, who followed up their historic electoral victories with a tremendous legacy. We’ll see if he can do it. 

Sterling Ortiz is a SESP fifth-year. You can contact him at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.