Voters in Chicago who regret supporting embattled far-left Mayor Brandon Johnson have a stark warning for New Yorkers considering backing socialist Zohran Mamdani to lead the city: Don’t make the same mistake.
Johnson, dubbed “America’s worst mayor” by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, has drawn comparisons to Mamdani for their shared progressive stances — which have been playing out disastrously in the Windy City.
“What I would say to New Yorkers is do your homework. You have to know who you are supporting, who you are voting for, so people of New York don’t walk around feeling the way I do,” said Cata Truss, a Johnson voter and campaigner turned vocal critic.
“I have buyer’s remorse in a way that I’ve never had before,” Truss, 59, told The Post this week.
“Don’t be me,” she added. “Do the research, follow the money. Who is donating to his campaign? Who got him elected? That will be determining where people ought to vote.”
Johnson rose to the mayor’s office in 2023, elbowing his disastrous Democratic predecessor Lori Lightfoot out of the primary and ultimately defeating centrist Paul Vallas in a two-man runoff.
His ascent, much like Mamdani’s as the Democratic mayoral nominee, was given a major lift by minority and young activist voters, lured in by his adherence to left-wing doctrine, including a 2020 resolution Johnson introduced as Cook County Commissioner that would have defunded the police, a position he later sprinted away from.
Since becoming mayor, Johnson’s approval rating has hovered around the high-20s, thanks in part to Chicago spending more than $600 million to address some 50,000 illegal immigrants who have made their way to the city in recent years.
“I’m anti-Brandon Johnson because I’ve seen what he’s done to this city. All these resources he’s used to take care of illegal citizens is hurting the city,” said Doris Lewis, 81, a retired Chicago high school teacher from Hyde Park.
Chicago’s budget woes have already become fodder for attacks in the New York City mayoral race, with ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, using the crisis to make an indirect dig at the frontrunner Mamdani.
“Chicago is proof that incompetent leadership can turn a deep-dish city into a half-baked mess,” he posted on X last week.
Mamdani and Cuomo, who has been coming in as the November contest’s runner-up in recent polls, will also face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and lawyer Jim Walden, both running as independents, and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Lewis, the retired schoolteacher, said she voted for Johnson because he was a “young black man with a family.” But she realized her error once she saw how he was running the city, calling Johnson “a disaster, a disgrace and a total disappointment.”
“I’ve been really angry with myself because going in, I had a general idea that he was pushing an agenda for everybody else except black people,” she said, accusing Johnson of “playing the race card” to earn the community’s support.
“What agenda does Zohran Mamdani have for the black community in New York City since that is who he is courting now?”
Lewis predicted that electing Mamdani — who is the frontrunner in the November general election — “would be a disaster for New York as it is a disaster for Chicago.”
“Socialism hasn’t worked for black people, so I am anti-this guy in New York,” she said.
A February poll by M3 Strategies found just 20% of voters approved of the job Johnson is doing in Chicago. The embattled mayor is facing a handful of recall efforts, as well as multiple PACs raising millions of dollars to ensure he isn’t re-elected in 2027.
The anti-Johnson sentiment was echoed among elected Democrats in the city.
Chicago Democratic Alderman Raymond Lopez, a self-described “middle of the road Democrat” who voted for Vallas and said he supports law enforcement, capitalism and personal responsibility, called on New Yorkers to “learn from our mistakes.”
“We see a lot of comparisons being made right now. Both are hyper-progressive, hyper-left socialist Democratic candidates,” he said of the oft-made juxtaposition between Johnson and Mamdani.
“Now you have New York and Chicago duking it out for who is going to be the more socialist, the more progressive city in America. It’s almost like a socialist nightmare,” Lopez said.
“Learn from our mistakes and pick someone who is more focused on results and common sense than simply burning down the barn because you want to see fire.”
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