Chicago Election Reaction (Part 3)
Brandon Johnson wins! After being more optimistic than most others over the last few months about Johnson's chances, my hopes had dimmed a bit in the last couple of weeks, so I was pleasantly surprised when the expected close race was unexpectedly a slight Johnson win instead of a slight Vallas win. This is huge for Chicago as the mayor has so much power to influence how things work in the city regardless of where city council stands.
At the same time, progressives did well this year in council elections, defeating well-funded establishment candidates in the 12th, 21st, 26th, 46th, and 48th and holding on to highly targeted seats in the 1st, 25th, and 33rd.
Progressive and semi-progressive numbers on the council continue to grow but fall just short of a majority. Johnson will need to find common ground with establishment black alders like Coleman, Scott, Harris, Mitchell, and Mitts in order to bring progressive change, which is a tough road, but an easier one than it would have been in the previous council. Expectations for truly transformative change should be restrained, but we're definitely in a better spot than 4 years ago.

Here's the full new council. Purple are who I'd consider "true progressives", blue are generally liberal but I have some concerns, yellow are moderate/establishment and I have a lot of concerns, and red are right-wing or have serious corruption concerns and are clear opponents of progressive change.
Progressive | Semi-Progressive | Moderate | Conservative/Corruption |
1- La Spata | 3- Dowell | 2- Hopkins | 9- Beale |
6- Hall (NEW) | 4- Robinson (NEW) | 7- Mitchell | 10- Chico (NEW) |
12- Ramirez (NEW) | 5- Yancy (NEW) | 8- Harris | 13- Quinn |
20- Taylor | 14- Gutierrez (NEW) | 11- Lee (1st full) | 15- Lopez |
22- M Rodriguez | 17- Moore | 16- Coleman | 18- Curtis |
25- Sigcho | 21- Mosley (NEW) | 23- Tabares | 19- O'Shea |
26- Fuentes (NEW) | 30- Cruz (NEW) | 24- Scott (1st full) | 27- Burnett |
33- R Rodriguez | 31- Cardona | 29- awaiting result | 28- Ervin |
35- Rosa | 32- Waguespack | 34- Conway (NEW) | 38- Sposato |
40- Vasquez | | 36- Villegas | 41- Napolitano |
46- Clay (NEW) | | 37- Mitts | 45- Gardiner |
47- Martin | | 39- Nugent | |
48- Manaa-Hoppenworth (NEW) | | 42- Reilly | |
49- Hadden | | 43- Knudsen (1st full) | |
| | 44- Lawson (NEW) | |
| | 50- Silverstein | |