Brandon Johnson Sworn In As Chicago's 57th Mayor Monday

Inauguration day for Chicago's 57th mayor is officially here.

Former Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who defeated Paul Vallas in a tight and at times contentious runoff election earlier this year, was sworn in as the Chicago's new Mayor during a ceremony Monday morning at the Credit Union 1 Arena, formerly known as the UIC Pavilion.

Last month, Johnson named Rich Guidice, the executive director for Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, as his incoming chief of staff. He also selected Dr. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, a current state senator serving the 20th district, as his incoming first deputy chief of staff.

“It’s going to take all of us to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago, and I know the people of Chicago will be served well by Rich Guidice as my chief of staff and Dr. Cristina Pacione-Zayas as my deputy chief of staff,” Johnson said in a statement. “Both Rich and Cristina have shown dedication to making Chicago work for all of Chicago, and I know they will lead these positions with a sense of collaboration, compassion, and competence.”

MORE: Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson Reveals His Transition Team

Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Johnson began his day meeting with supporters and students in the Austin neighborhood, at Michele Clark Magnet High School.

Following the ceremony, Johnson and the First Lady are set to hold a public meet and greet at City Hall and Daley Plaza beginning at 2 p.m.

Members of the public can line up on the south side of the building and be ushered to the 5th floor, a release from Johnson's campaign says.

MORE: Rahm Emanuel Sends Message to Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson Ahead of Inauguration

Monday evening, Johnson will be joined by supporters, elected officials and community leaders for The People's Ball.

Political experts say Johnson in his first speech as Mayor is expected to lay out plans for his administration, and more clearly state how will wants to achieve them.

Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois Chicago Dick Simpson says that although Johnson is coming into office without a major budget deficit, he still faces financial challenges in order to bring the social service programs he campaigned on to life.

"He's going to have to find the money to do the social services to implement the kind of policies he wants," Simpson said. "And that also includes affordable housing and continuing 'INVEST South/West'" a program started by Lori Lightfoot.

"These are expensive items," Simpson continued.

Another point experts say they will be watching for is how Johnson's campaign as a progressive will translate into action.

“What kind of progressive is he going to be," Political analyst Delmarie Cobb said. "I think a lot of times, people govern a lot differently than they run as candidates. And once they get into that office, they wind up being very sober, about all the things that they face and how they have to go about solving.”

What to Know About Brandon Johnson

Johnson, 47 and a former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, was little known when he entered the mayoral race in 2022 and has no experience within city government. But the two-term Cook County commissioner gradually climbed atop a crowded field with the support of the influential union he once worked for, endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and local progressive groups to knock off the incumbent mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and win a tough runoff in April.

He has since tried to appeal to those who didn't back him in the election, stocking his transition team with familiar names from Chicago corporations and philanthropies beside leaders of organized labor and progressive groups. He selected a veteran of Chicago's emergency management agency as his chief of staff and a retired police commander who is popular among rank-and-file officers as interim leader of the Chicago Police Department.

There is little doubt that public safety will remain the city’s top concern and Johnson’s response will shape his relationship with business leaders, other elected officials, his base of progressive activists and residents of every Chicago neighborhood.

“Mayor-elect Johnson’s top priority remains building a better, stronger, safer Chicago where all residents can live and work free from the threat of violence,” spokesman Ronnie Reese said in a statement.

Asiaha Butler, co-founder of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood on the South Side, said she hopes Johnson stays committed to his wholesale approach to crime — and that Chicagoans give it an opportunity to make a difference. Butler said improving safety on her own block took 10 or even 15 years of cooperation with neighbors and other community groups.

“Knowing the despair that our city sometimes faces, it will take a while to take that cloud away,” Butler said. “I wouldn’t put anyone up to that job in one term.”

Chicago has a higher per-capita homicide rate than New York or Los Angeles, but the most recent federal data shows it’s lower than other Midwestern cities, such as St. Louis and Detroit. Still, the number of homicides in Chicago hit a 25-year high in 2021 with 804, according to the Chicago Police Department.

That number decreased last year while other crimes, such as carjackings and robberies, increased.

Chicago business leaders overwhelmingly endorsed Johnson's opponent, former Chicago schools CEO Paul Vallas, typically swayed by his pitch to strengthen policing or Johnson's various tax proposals affecting large companies and the wealthy.

Key corporate groups or individuals have been impressed by the mayor-elect's quick outreach following his victory, said Farzin Parang, executive director of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago.

The trade group represents the commercial office industry that drew 600,000 people downtown daily pre-pandemic but now reports at most 40% of that number. Efforts to draw new tenants are regularly hampered by Chicago's “headline weaknesses” — particularly public safety and real estate taxes, Parang said.

“You really just lose out on a bunch of people that don’t even consider Chicago,” he said. "So I think even small movements towards addressing some of those weaknesses, they have big returns."

The mayoral race was dominated by questions of how to address crime, and Johnson argued that a policing-first approach has failed.

Instead, he proposed increased mental health treatment, hiring more detectives, expanding youth jobs programs and increasing taxes on the sale of properties over $1 million to support more affordable housing. Johnson will also have the final say on naming the city’s next police superintendent, though for the first time an appointed citizen commission will select three finalists.

Andrea Sáenz, president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust foundation, said she's hopeful that Johnson can bring philanthropies, businesses, police and activists together to create a wide-ranging strategy to prevent violence now and chip away at the conditions that let it flourish.

“It feels like this is a moment — the moment — to have those conversations, for a mayor to bring everybody to the table,” Sáenz said.

Johnson has shown no sign of backing away from his campaign strategies. When violence broke out as teens flooded Chicago's downtown streets in mid-April, he issued a statement asking that people not “demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

Paying for his campaign promises, including the public safety response, hinges on a number of tax increases aimed at high earners and large companies likely to put up a political fight. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the state's most influential Democrat, already declined to back the mayor-elect's proposal to tax financial transactions, which would require sign-off from state lawmakers.

Johnson is also taking on a growing migrant crisis. Chicago is among the U.S. cities already struggling to provide shelter and other help to hundreds arriving from the southern border, with adults and young children sleeping in police station lobbies. The flow of new arrivals is expected to increase now that pandemic-era restrictions on migrant crossings have ended.

Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Chicago Democrat who also ran for mayor, said Johnson will have to use the same strategy that won him the mayor's office to achieve his many priorities.

“I think what Lori Lightfoot learned is that in Chicago, your defenders can very quickly become your detractors,” Buckner said. “We want our leaders to be authentic, have conversations with us about the future. As long as he continues to do that, I think people will give him an opportunity.”