04/23/25
In the lead-up to our joint 10-year anniversary fundraiser on May 1, we will be sharing stories about key moments in our organizing history.
=====
2023 saw Chicago’s first municipal elections since the 2020 uprising. At 33WF, we began the campaign season with two important lessons in mind.
1) We knew that the pandemic and uprising had produced a right-wing backlash in the form of a crime panic and electoral wins for pro-police candidates, such as the mayoral election of Eric Adams in liberal New York City.
2) We knew that Chicago’s northwest side candidates, like Delia Ramirez and Anthony Quezada, had decisively won their 2022 primary elections despite “smear” campaigns that portrayed them as in favor of defunding the police. Moreover, the referendum for Rossana’s #TreatmentNotTrauma had been a resounding success. But how would things play out in 2023?
Brandon Johnson
Brandon was not new among organizers. He had been a public school teacher, a Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) organizer, a strike leader, and a United Working Families (UWF) member before becoming a Cook County Commissioner in 2018, and rumors of his interest in running for mayor began circulating in early 2022. The 2019 mayoral race revealed the disorganization of the Chicago political machine when Lori Lightfoot, a relative unknown, beat a crowded field of higher-profile candidates. Four years later, she was as unpopular as Rahm Emanuel, and progressives wondered if we could pull off a mayoral upset of our own.
Brandon faced an uphill battle, as many were willing to give Lightfoot a second chance. After Paul Vallas joined the race, Chicago’s right wing rallied behind the only white candidate, who also happened to be endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Worse, in November, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia announced his candidacy, potentially splitting the progressive vote.
In an increasingly crowded mayoral race, Lori, Paul, and Chuy were all well known across the city—while Brandon had 3% name recognition.
In September 2022, 33WF joined other ward groups in hosting a Northwest Side Progressive Mayoral Forum that introduced progressive candidates to the public. Afterward, our coalition endorsed Brandon, followed by endorsements from UWF and CTU.
With the stage set, Brandon announced his candidacy in October. The first policy he committed to was Rossana’s Treatment Not Trauma (TNT), signaling to organizers that we could harness the energy from the streets and the referendum. In January, Grassroots Collaborative invited various mayoral candidates to a “People’s Unity Platform” event. There, candidates were practically tripping over themselves to be viewed as the most pro-TNT.
Chuy might have rallied the most volunteers, but his policies were out of touch—like an early campaign promise to hire 1,000 more police. After so many organizers had spent months protesting police violence, it was easy to direct their energy away from Chuy and toward Brandon.
Rossana’s legislation had reshaped an election that would otherwise have been solely dominated by pro-police positions.
Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez
Rossana’s reelection campaign was led once again by Kate Barthelme, building on the lessons from 2019. Kate brought back the previous campaign’s precinct captain program and recruited a special team to organize our weekly canvasses.
Rossana’s first campaign ran on promises. Her reelection ran on receipts. In her first term, Rossana implemented participatory budgeting and community-driven zoning to democratize previously corrupt and opaque systems and procedures. In addition to TNT, she led the fight for the Bodily Autonomy Ordinance to protect those coming to Chicago for reproductive and gender-affirming care. Her office has also consistently provided the sixth-fastest service rate among Chicago’s wards!
The campaign started like any other, but everything changed on February 8, when the ward was hit with Isidro Valverde’s tragic murder at the hands of Chicago police. Isidro had pulled out a gun while intoxicated at a bar. Bar security had de-escalated the situation and ended it without violence, but when police arrived on the scene, they chased Isidro through an alley anyway before shooting and killing him.
Rossana’s office put out a statement rightly referring to Isidro as a “victim” of police violence, but Samie Martinez, her right-wing opponent, tried to weaponize Rossana’s empathy by whipping up sensationalist anger around the word choice.
On Valentine’s Day, Rossana attended Isidro’s wake to comfort his grieving family alongside more than 150 mourners, many of whom were unsettled by the heavy-handed police presence outside. One mourner, his eyes red with tears, yelled at the officers. Rossana was approached by one of Isidro’s cousins, who thanked her for humanizing her slain family member. The wake was a brutal reminder of why she was running.
The police tried to justify the murder by claiming that Valverde had shot at them first, and Police Superintendent David Brown claimed that body-cam footage would prove this. Yet when the footage was released, it was obvious the police had lied.
Rossana demanded the resignation of Supt. Brown on February 16. The next day, she co-authored an article about the need for “care, not cops” in The Nation magazine. Openly calling for the resignation of a police superintendent while campaigning was risky—but indeed, Brown stepped down a month later.
We didn’t know what impact this would have on the election, so we organized one final show of strength. The “March to the Polls” would be our biggest event to date, with volunteers bursting out of our office. Rossana went on to win decisively on February 28 by 2,210 votes! By staying true to her principles, Rossana maintained an unwavering pool of volunteers and organizations that carried her to victory.
Moreover, Brandon came in second place, securing his position in the mayoral runoff! April 4 would be a face-off between the CTU candidate and the FOP candidate.
The Runoff
Electrified by the success of our candidates, we headed back to the doors for Brandon in the runoff. Organizing efforts across the city had caught the attention of Bernie Sanders, who joined Brandon on March 30 for a rally at UIC. While Bernie did not flip voters, he reenergized exhausted volunteers and enlisted fresh ones.
On April 4, those volunteers carried Brandon to City Hall. A candidate who began with less than 3% name recognition would now become mayor of the third-largest city in the country. This was neither a victory of running to the center nor one of following the Democratic Party playbook. Instead, it was a victory built on the selfless work of volunteers and left-wing organizations across the city that came together to fight for a candidate who embraced our movement, principles, and demands.
Despite the challenges, our political ecosystem withstood the backlash, leaned on Rossana’s TNT, and made history.
Special thanks to Stacy Liu for sharing thoughts and providing edits.
=====
We hope you'll join us on Thursday, May 1, 6-10pm, at Rockwell On The River (3057 N Rockwell St) for our 10 Year Anniversary fundraiser with United Neighbors of the 35th Ward!
Tickets: https://bit.ly/peoplepower10
