The 90,000-member union that represents hospital, nursing home, home care and child care workers throughout the Midwest backed Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, four days after U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García entered the race for mayor, scrambling the contest.

Ten major candidates have already launched campaigns to deny Mayor Lori Lightfoot a second term. 

In a video posted early Thursday morning, García said he was running for mayor because “Chicagoans are calling out for help” after suffering though a pandemic and experiencing a “racial reckoning that underscored our painful history of inequity.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has a big night as Illinois Republicans scramble to rebuild. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

Pedro Martinez, appointed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in September 2021 to lead the Chicago Public Schools, has never answered questions during a City Council meeting.

Dian Palmer, the president of SEIU Local 73, said Johnson was the “progressive candidate who will unite a multiracial, working-class coalition to unify Chicago into a city that works for all people.”

Election Day is less than a week away and candidates are out making their final pushes. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

Brandon Johnson vowed to address the structural inequity that pervades Chicago and fuels violent crime, calling high-performing schools, affordable housing and health care all violence prevention measures.

Although George Cardenas will not take his seat on the Board of Review until January, he said his resignation will take effect Nov. 30, giving the mayor a chance to conduct a “thorough search for his replacement.”

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, 46, launched his campaign in Cabrini Green’s Seward Park, near Jenner Academy Elementary School where he began his teaching career.

Ald. Sophia King serves as the Education Committee’s vice chair, and was set to become chair under the City Council’s rules before Mayor Lori Lightfoot attempted to replace her with an ally.

Joel Brodsky represented Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, when he was convicted in 2012 of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004. Peterson also was a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, who has never been found.

A coalition of progressive groups has been working for nearly a year to prevent Mayor Lori Lightfoot from being re-elected by uniting behind a single candidate. Nothing in the Lightfoot’s spending plan is likely to alter that determination — and may give them more ammunition to use against the mayor.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveils a $16.4 billion budget proposal – but bows to political reality and drops a property tax hike linked to inflation. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

Brandon Johnson, 46, has yet to formally announce that he will run for mayor of Chicago — but the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union will ensure that he will have ample resources if he does take on Lightfoot, who has long been at odds with the city’s most politically powerful labor union.

The February 2023 election represents a nearly unprecedented opportunity for Democratic Socialists to not only take on Mayor Lori Lightfoot but also to remake the Chicago City Council after a wave of retirements and departures.