Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson has officially joined the race to unseat Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, kicking off a campaign he says will focus on closing quality of life gaps between Chicago’s poorest and richest neighborhoods.

Surrounded by a group of some progressive Chicago aldermen and area politicians, Chicago Teachers Union organizers, environmental activists and more, Johnson made the announcement near a Chicago Public School — formerly known as Jenner Academy — where he used to teach middle school. He is the ninth candidate to challenge Lightfoot.

“Chicago is an amazing city … And it has produced some of the toughest, most resourceful, resilient, talented people in the world. But it’s also a deeply divided city, where some people have more than their fair share of that wealth and power, while others are excluded,” Johnson said.

Johnson is joining a crowded group of candidates running progressive campaigns to replace Lightfoot — including community activist Ja’Mal Green, State Rep. Kam Buckner, Ald. Sophia King and Ald. Roderick Sawyer. Businessman Willie Wilson, police officer Frederick Collins, Ald. Raymond Lopez and CPS CEO Paul Vallas are running to Lightfoot’s right.

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A former public school teacher and current organizer in the CTU, Johnson was elected to represent the county’s 1st District in 2018. The area stretches from the west suburbs of Bellwood and Oak Park to Chicago’s West Side Austin neighborhood, where Johnson lives with his wife and three kids. He himself grew up in the northwest suburb of Elgin as one of 10 siblings. His father was a church pastor and his mother did youth development and community engagement work in the church, he has said.

On the campaign trail, Johnson is likely to highlight his roots in Chicago and the surrounding area, and how raising kids on the West Side gives him a keen perspective on how to combat violence, as well as deal with challenges facing Chicago Public Schools.

“Raising my children – my wife and I – on the West Side of Chicago in Austin, [it’s] one of the most dynamic neighborhoods in all of the world, but it is also one of the most violent neighborhoods in Chicago, and my wife and I think about this every day,” Johnson said. “Because just recently we had to change one of the windows in our children’s bedroom from one of the bullets that came through our window.”

In his speech Thursday, Johnson promised to address concerns about the city’s violence by addressing its root causes, saying he’d fully fund all of Chicago’s neighborhood public schools, invest in public mental health, Chicago parks and recreational centers on South and West Sides, “green jobs,” and more. He did not share further details on those plans during his kick-off event.

“Is there violence? Yes. Is carjacking wrong? Yes, of course it is. But let me tell you what else is wrong,” Johnson said, followed by a list of examples highlighting inequities between working class and wealthy Chicago families, such as long waiting lists for public housing, and disinvested community spaces.

“If we’re going to deal with the pervasive problem of public safety, you have to deal with the root causes. We need to have treatment not trauma … that’s violence prevention. We need to fully invest in healthcare and public housing and green jobs and fully funding our public schools. That’s violence prevention.”

Johnson has made a name for himself among progressive circles in the Chicago area. At the county level, he supported a nonbinding resolution to shift funding away from police amid 2020 protests against the murder of George Floyd. Johnson also serves as vice chairman of the county’s committee on criminal justice.

That’s something Lightfoot — who has long denounced the phrase “defund the police” — will seek to capitalize on throughout the campaign.

“[H]is campaign stands on one platform and one platform only: to defund the police department entirely. It’s easy to talk about what you do — it’s another thing to be in the arena, doing the work everyday to keep our city moving forward,” Lightfoot campaign spokesperson Christina Freundlich said in response to Johnson’s campaign announcement.

Freundlich also said the campaign will “put up Mayor Lightfoot’s progressive achievements versus Brandon Johnson’s thin resume any day of the week.”

Lightfoot could tout her fight for a “Fair Workweek” ordinance that strengthened her relationship with some Chicago unions, including SEIU, her signature Invest South/West program that seeks to attract private investment in low income neighborhoods, and her use of $2 billion in federal funding for community violence prevention, mental health, environmental justice and more.

At the same time, Lightfoot has increased spending for police year over year — rising to a proposed $1.94 billion for 2023, and has flipped on some of her progressive campaign promises. She has not fought for an elected school board in Chicago or the use of a real estate tax to help fund housing for homeless residents, and did not bring back a standalone Department of Environment in the city.

Perhaps Johnson’s biggest challenge will be differentiating himself from the pack of candidates, and gaining name recognition among Chicago voters who might not pay attention to county politics.

It is also unclear if Johnson will gain momentum with non-progressive voters. Though Chicago is a heavily Democratic city, there are numerous candidates running tough-on-crime campaigns who are hoping to pull the support of moderate voters disturbed by the city’s high crime rate. Some analysts believe a successful candidate will need to unify voter bases from multiple political camps to beat Lightfoot.

“I think the challenge for Brandon isn’t just simply locking in the progressive base,” senior political strategist Rebecca Williams told WBEZ when Johnson began publicly mulling a mayoral run. “It’s actually all the other folks across the other ideological spectrum, who don’t know him.”

Still, Johnson’s entry into the race represents a significant challenge for the mayor, who’s been targeted by the CTU and other progressives before even taking office. For CTU, Johnson now represents a chance at a rematch of the 2019 election.

That year, the CTU backed Lightfoot’s opponent, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who lost by a landslide. The CTU also supported a losing candidate in the 2015 election, but the group doesn’t count all of its lost mayoral bids as failures.

In 2015, progressives rallied around then-County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. Garcia lost the election, but his mayoral bid helped raise his profile as a progressive politician, and he went on to become a U.S. Congressman. Garcia himself is also mulling a run for mayor in the 2023 election, although one of his close political allies — State Rep. Delia Ramirez -– endorsed and introduced Johnson at Thursday’s event.

An endorsement from the CTU means foot soldiers to circulate petitions and knock on doors for Johnson. But it could also lead to a steady cash flow from ally organizations that follow the group’s lead in supporting Johnson. Earlier this week, before Johnson even announced his candidacy, the American Federation of Teachers said it would donate $1 million to his mayoral bid.

Johnson is currently in a contested race for reelection to his county seat in the upcoming Nov. 8 election, which he’d have to resign if he won the mayoral bid.

Mariah Woelfel covers city government and politics for WBEZ. Follow @MariahWoelfel.