27% of Chicagoans approve of Mayor Brandon Johnson
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is about to host the Democratic National Convention. He’ll be a party cheerleader that nearly 2 in 3 Chicagoans would rather not follow.
As Chicagoans prepare for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Mayor Brandon Johnson faces a difficult challenge: rallying Chicagoans to his party’s cause when most don’t like his leadership.
New polling numbers show 63% of Chicago voters polled disapproved of Johnson’s record, according to an Illinois Policy Institute poll in early August of 454 registered Chicago voters conducted by M3 Strategies.
That’s worse than any mayor this early in a term since former Mayor Michael Bilandic, who was appointed to the position after the death of former Mayor Richard J. Daley. Bilandic left office in 1979.
The only other Chicago mayors to poll as poorly during the past four decades were former Mayor Rahm Emanuel following the Laquan McDonald police shooting scandal and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot during her failed mayoral reelection campaign in 2023.
The poll also showed crime was the top concern of voters, followed by recent migrants, high taxes and city governance.
Low approval of Johnson and the progressive agenda he shares with his campaign funders, including the Chicago Teachers Union, have been on display in both Chicago and the state capital during the past year.
Johnson failed to pass any of the six tax proposals he campaigned on as part of his “Better Chicago Agenda” to boost taxes by $800 million. That included voters in March rejecting his “mansion tax” to raise the real estate transfer tax on properties worth over $1 million, including some of his strongest supporters on the South and West Sides.
The first-term mayor and former CTU lobbyist experienced even more losses in Chicago after his attempt to eliminate the city’s ShotSpotter contract was blocked by aldermen in a 34-14 vote.
Violent crime rates across the city increased while arrest rates for violent crimes such as homicides and robberies hit their lowest levels in decades.
Johnson’s plan to build tent cities for migrants coming to Chicago was rejected last year when Gov. J.B. Pritzker discovered they would be constructed on sites where toxic chemicals were present, including mercury and arsenic.
The mayor’s spending $460 million on arriving migrants has also drawn criticism from Chicago residents and media because of a lack of transparency and overspending. Long-time residents have complained the city can find money for migrants while ignoring their needs for decades.
Johnson traveled to Springfield with CTU members on a paid “release day” to demand state lawmakers give Chicago Public Schools $1.1 billion he claimed the district was “owed.”
Lawmakers rejected the request. Gov. J.B. Pritzker disputed the $1.1 billion figure and blamed CPS’ use of temporary pandemic dollars to fund permanent increases in the district budget for contributing to what is now a $505-million deficit.
It didn’t help that a month earlier, the same state lawmakers rebuked Johnson’s CTU allies after the union decried as “racist” a bipartisan, majority-supported bill to prevent CPS’ selective-enrollment and magnet schools from closing until 2027.
Johnson will be hosting an estimated 67,000 delegates, volunteers and visitors coming for the Democratic National Convention. He’s likely to find friendlier faces at the cocktail receptions than he’ll find in the neighborhoods of his own city.