Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday delivered a pointed warning to fellow progressive Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City.
Speaking on WBEZ Reset, Johnson answered a question on what advice he would give Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman and democratic socialist, by alluding to the leftist coalition in Chicago souring on him after his 2023 election.
“I’m just gonna be very candid here. What has happened historically, particularly for candidates like myself or even Mamdani, when we win, sometimes the movement doesn’t always show up after the win, right?” Johnson said.
Mamdani’s stunning June upset in the Democratic primary against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was one of the most seismic victories of the party’s left wing in recent years, reinvigorating the argument that progressivism can be a winning message in U.S. cities. But in Chicago, Johnson’s tenure as the city’s most progressive mayor in decades has seen mixed results — and some of the backlash to his leadership has come from his own political tribe.
That has included criticism from the City Council’s Progressive Caucus over his handling of public transit, the schools and Police Department budgets and the migrant crisis. As a result, an ongoing internal split within Chicago’s progressive movement has left open the question of whom the Service Employees International Union — Johnson’s second closest labor ally, after the Chicago Teachers Union — will back in the 2027 mayoral race.
At the same time, Johnson’s defenders have pointed out the transition from activist to running the nation’s third-largest city is bound to be bumpy, as Chicago’s grassroots movement is now clamoring for its decades of unfulfilled demands to be heard. The mayor has argued that he inherited a host of problems, fiscal and beyond, and has been held to an impossible standard at times.
In his WBEZ appearance, Johnson also compared himself to former President Barack Obama and said after moving into the White House, his Organizing for America political organization became a “third rail” and could not keep up the momentum to stave off the rise of President Donald Trump.
“So we just have to stay committed as progressives to our values, and even when it gets bumpy a little bit, it doesn’t mean that we’re doing everything wrong. In fact, you don’t have to be perfect in order for things to work,” Johnson said. “There will be moments where you have perfected certain aspects of a relationship or governance, and then there are things that you have to continue to work on. I’ve been in office for just over two years.”
Johnson praised Mamdani’s campaign platform for centering on affordability and suggested he do a segment on “Ask the mayor” to engage with the public early. The New York assemblyman will again face Cuomo along with Mayor Eric Adams, both running as independents, in the November general election.
“That’s one of the things that I reflected on in my two years, that I took it for granted that people would just know the what and the why,” Johnson said. “The organizing that’s necessary to win a campaign, you have to remain committed to that organizing.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported this week that Mamdani himself was lukewarm on Johnson compared to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, another progressive, during a private meeting. Asked whom he was more aligned with, Mamdani reportedly “leaned into his admiration for Ms. Wu,” the outlet reported.