Here's the thing. When the head of the union that spent more than $6 million electing a mayor says she'll personally collect his re-election petitions, that's not an endorsement. That's a receipt.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates made the offer explicit in a Tuesday interview with WTTW News. 'I hope to see Mayor Johnson come off the sideline and I hope to see the people who support him get out here and pass a petition,' she said. 'If he's not going to pass one, I'll pass one for him.'
Davis Gates also credited Johnson's administration with delivering for Chicago Public Schools. 'Where the governor has failed to fund our schools, the mayor has given us a billion dollars,' she said. 'I don't think we've done better at Chicago Public Schools than under his leadership.'
The backstory is not subtle. Johnson — a former public school teacher, CTU union organizer, and CTU legislative coordinator — rode the union's organizational muscle to a 2023 victory, first eliminating incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the primary, then defeating former CPS CEO Paul Vallas in the runoff. According to financial disclosures analyzed by the Illinois Policy Institute, the CTU alone funneled more than $2.6 million directly into that campaign, with teachers unions collectively contributing over $6 million.
Johnson has consistently pushed back on the characterization that he governs on the CTU's behalf. In 2023 he told ABC 7 that his platform represents a shared commitment to 'uniting the city around a set of values that the people of Chicago obviously want.' Critics have not found that answer satisfying, and the union's ongoing enthusiasm for his re-election is unlikely to quiet them.
During his first term, Johnson also oversaw a historic governance shift for CPS, enacted under state legislation passed in 2021 — a long-held CTU policy objective — establishing a 21-member hybrid school board structure.
Voltage take: The relationship between Johnson and the CTU is less a political alliance than a closed loop: the union funds the candidate, the candidate governs toward the union's agenda, and the union prepares to fund the candidate again. Chicago taxpayers — including the ones footing the bill for that billion-dollar schools commitment — are the variable nobody in this arrangement is optimizing for. When the person promising to collect your re-election signatures is also your former employer and your largest donor, 'independent leadership' stops being a description and starts being a campaign slogan.
