In a final drive to expand turnout for next week's mayoral runoff election, Brandon Johnson's campaign is holding a rally headlined by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Chicago-based rapper Vic Mensa and other local leaders tonight at the UIC Credit Union 1 Arena.
The rally, initially announced last week, was originally slated to be held at the smaller UIC Forum. The venue change was announced Wednesday night as organizers are expecting a significant crowd.
In addition to Sanders and Mensa, Illinois Congressmen Jonathan Jackson and Delia Ramirez are also scheduled to appear, in addition to Martin Luther King III.
According to Johnson's campaign, those who RSVP'd to the previous event do not needs to do so again.
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When Sanders endorsed Johnson last week, he tweeted the news to his 15.5 million Twitter followers.
But his greatest value to Johnson has always been his potential to join Johnson at a preelection rally in Chicago to energize Johnson’s progressive base and boost turnout that was just over 35% on Feb. 28.
Now that will happen for Johnson five days before what could be a nail-biter of an election.
Chicago Mayoral Election 2023
Early voting and mail-in turnout has well exceeded the levels of the 2019 and 2015 runoff elections thus far, though record early voting and mail-in turnout did not translate to a much higher overall turnout in the first-round elections in February.
As of Wednesday night, 138,759 ballots had been cast for the runoff elections, with 103,180 of those votes coming via early voting.
Overall, 200,176 vote-by-mail applications had been received by the Board of Elections, with Thursday marking the final day to submit an application.
In 2015, where runoff turnout reached nearly 41%, 105,511 ballots had been cast five days out from the election, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
Neidhardt argued that Sanders’ potential to help “energize the base” Johnson is attempting to build among Black, progressive white and young Latino voters cannot be overstated. The independent Vermont senator and two-time presidential candidate “has a higher favorability rating than virtually any other Democrat,” he said.
“Young voters will hear the big musical name. They’ll hear a politician who is very popular with them” and they’ll come to the UIC Forum, said Neidhart, who served as deputy state director for Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign in Iowa.
“This is not progressive versus moderate. This is Democrat versus Republican. This will help show that. … This is a city that votes for Democrats 85% and up. What we want to do is tell every Democrat, `We’re the Democrat in the race. Vote for the real Democrat.’ This will help do that. Paul Vallas can’t touch that.”
If history is any indication, the UIC Credit Union 1 Arena could be bursting at the seams.
In the run-up to last year’s mid-term elections, Sanders headlined two Chicago rallies. One at Teamsters City drew more than 1,200 people. Another at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare included a crowd of roughly 2,000, Neidhardt said.
“Having worked for Bernie’s campaign in Iowa where our main voters were actually older union members, this isn’t just for young kids. Bernie Sanders has also shown in his presidential primaries that he is very popular with Latino voters, very popular across the board. Democrats love him. This is definitely something where we are playing to the broad base we have,” Neidhardt said.
“This is a big rally — something that [Paul] Vallas can’t do. Vallas can’t hold a rally with more than 300 people.”
Throughout the campaign, Vallas has been fending off charges that he is an anti-choice, anti-union, pro-voucher “Republican” masquerading as a Democrat.
The Vallas campaign was bracing for the possibility of a Sanders rally — and playing down the potential impact.
“If Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders come here, it probably helps the Vallas turnout more,” former Chicago Board of Education President Gery Chico, one of Vallas’ staunchest supporters, told the Sun-Times earlier this week. “People will wonder why two of the progressive national leaders are coming here to Chicago. We don’t need them to come here. We’ve already heard it in Brandon Johnson’s program.”
“Chicago has had a pretty good history of handling its own issues. We don’t need people from the outside coming in and telling us how to live and how to vote.”
