Chicago needs a new mayor — and it’s time for a Republican

The world is moving to the right politically. Argentina moved far to the right, electing a conservative, no-nonsense president, Javier Milei. The liberal Justin Trudeau government of Canada is about to fall. The Democrat mayor of Dallas is now a Republican. The prime minister of France has been forced out. Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, is starting to parrot Trumpisms, and Donald Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote to resume the presidency.

Perhaps it is time for Chicago to follow suit.

Chicago deserves a mayor who will put the interests of Chicagoans and American citizens first.

The people of Chicago celebrated when then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for re-election in February 2023, becoming the first mayor in 40 years to not reach the general election. There was a sense of hope. Certainly, neither of the candidates on the ballot, Paul Vallas or Brandon Johnson, could be a worse choice.

Then the voters of Chicago said to the world, “Hold my beer,” and elected Brandon Johnson, who has proven to be more radical and polarizing than his predecessor.

Mayor Johnson has failed to address crime, poverty, homelessness, and the flight of major businesses and their educated workforce from the city. Instead, the mayor has decided to focus on illegal immigrants, even doubling down on his position since the re-election of Donald Trump.

Johnson has claimed that Chicago will not allow Chicago Police officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deport illegal immigrants, stating, “We will not bend or break. … We will not be stopped, and we will not go back.”

But Mayor Johnson failed in his political calculus. He abandoned the people who propelled him into office in favor of people who are in the city illegally, taking taxpayer resources away from the city’s American citizens who need assistance. And those constituents are not going quietly into that good night.

Chicagoans are so irate that they shouted down the mayor during a recent city meeting to discuss his budget, with one resident, a person of color, stating, “You caused all this money to go to illegal immigrants. … Anything you pass is not genuine.”

Another resident accused the mayor of failing to “protect the people of Chicago from invasion.”

Things became so heated that the mayor had the public removed from the meeting.

But it isn’t just the mayor’s love of illegal immigrants over American citizens. He has failed at every turn of his administration; he is simply out of touch with his constituency. Johnson doesn’t want to address the issues that matter to Chicagoans. “We’ve watched him gush over a $1.5 billion proposal to redo Soldier Field, put $400 million toward migrant care only to evict families, and spend $30,000 in campaign finances on hair and makeup. Perhaps that’s why only 28% of Chicagoans view him favorably.”

Brandon Johnson has failed the people who voted him into office, people of color from poor neighborhoods. Those mothers and fathers do not care about the use of preferred pronouns; they do not want men in women’s locker rooms; and they do not want money going to illegal immigrants. They want to ensure that their children can walk to and from school without being shot. They want their children to be able to read once they graduate from high school; and they want their neighborhoods to be safe, demanding more policing, not less.

Chicago needs a law-and-order mayor who will protect the interests of the city’s forgotten people: poor people of color who are tired of failed city policies. Chicagoans deserve a mayor who will fight crime, enable police to do their job, and ensure the education of the city’s underserved population. Chicago deserves a mayor who will put the interests of Chicagoans and American citizens first, above the interests of those who have broken the law to be here.

Chicago needs a new mayor. Perhaps it is time for us to elect the first Republican mayor in over 100 years.