La Vallita, or Little Village, warmly welcomed Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson with drumming and dancing and speeches, during a morning rally in the banquet room of Mi Tierra restaurant on South Kedzie Avenue, before sending out a host of canvassers to ring neighborhood doorbells for the progressive mayoral candidate in the largely Mexican community on the city's southwest side.
Crowded and energetic, the campaign event was organized by United Working Families and attended by many local residents, as well as representatives of AFSCME, the Chicago Teachers Union and other labor organizations.
Brandon Johnson, a former public school teacher and organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, closed his address by recalling that the April 4th run-off against former Chicago public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, will be the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, "And as we commemorate the life and legacy of one of the greatest human beings who ever walked the planet," he reminded the audience, "Reverend King told the 1967 AFSCME convention in a prophetic speech that if the labor rights movement and the civil rights movement were ever to collide, what enormous potential we would have!".
Brandon Johnson finished second in the mayor's race on February 28th with 20.3% of the vote, forcing the upcoming runoff with Paul Vallas, who garnered 33.7%. Recent polling shows the contest to be very close, with a significant amount of voters still undecided.