You won a brighter future today
Tonight, all of Chicago won! And for us in the CTU—who see, in this campaign, our dream of a city that loves its Black and Brown children and puts working-class students, families and community members ahead of corporations and real estate developers—that victory is extra sweet.
Chicago says Yes!
As of 9:45 p.m. tonight, election results showed Chicago voters embraced Brandon’s bold vision for a better, safer, stronger Chicago and rejected Paul Vallas’ right-wing, cynical law and order platform.
Today, Chicago has spoken. Chicago has said yes to hope, yes to investment in people, yes to housing the unhoused, and yes to supporting young people with fully-funded schools. It is a new day in our city.
The continuation of a 10-year movement
More than 10 years ago, the mighty Karen Lewis led our membership on a new path to fighting against the tide of corporate “Shock Doctrine” attacks on the public good. The resistance she led in the 2012 strike and the fight against Rahm Emanuel’s decimation of our school district planted a seed that grew into a towering movement. The movement is rooted in our school communities and has spread its branches throughout them by making common cause with all those who have struggled to get what we need and deserve. Today, the flowers of that movement blossomed.
In October 2022, when the CTU’s House of Delegates voted nearly unanimously to endorse and support Brandon, only 2 percent of Chicagoans even knew who he was. But his bold platform—rooted in the demands we have made for our students and school communities as we bargain for the common good—fueled his campaign in every corner of the city, presenting Chicagoans with the most straightforward choice of vision in any contest since the election of Harold Washington 40 years ago.
You don’t have a Brandon Johnson without a Karen Lewis. She transformed the political debate in our city. She showed Chicagoans how to stand up and demand what their schools and their city need and deserve. Tonight affirms Karen’s dream of a city that works for us all, not just a privileged few.
Educators made this victory possible
CTU members, you made tonight’s victory possible. The tens of thousands of teachers, clinicians and PSRPs who voted for Brandon, the thousands who talked to your families and neighbors about Brandon and the opportunity his candidacy posed for our city, and the hundreds and hundreds of volunteers who built up his campaign brought us tonight’s victory. But what made the difference is the unity we have woven together and the power that we have built together over years of struggle—from our 2012 strike through to today.
Even in collaboration with a Mayor Brandon Johnson, we will need all the strength our unity brings us to continue pushing for the schools and the city Chicagoans deserve. Tonight we can celebrate this landmark victory. Tomorrow, we will continue to organize together, union strong.
