A mayor headed to the Bronx for a private reelection fundraiser Monday night. No, not New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but a different leftist big-city mayor: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Johnson is in town to speak at a National Urban League summit, so former Rep. Jamaal Bowman co-hosted a fundraiser for him at Sankofa Haus, an event space in the South Bronx. Guests who had paid between $50 and $7,000 for a ticket enjoyed rum punch and hors d’oeuvres – including miniature chicken sandwiches, vegetable spring rolls and salmon bites with spicy mayonnaise – while Bowman moderated a panel with Johnson and Working Families Party National Director Maurice Mitchell. City & State spotted congressional candidate and former Assembly Member Michael Blake among the 30 or so people in the audience.
Bowman and Johnson have a great deal in common: they’re both Black former educators known for their unapologetically leftist politics who just turned 50 years old and have faced their share of negative press. Bowman told City & State he thinks Johnson – who won the Chicago mayoralty with great fanfare in 2023 but now faces a tough reelection fight – deserves a greater national profile in progressive politics.
For Bowman, hosting a fundraiser for Johnson is part of his larger project to “build up the Black left.” In 2024, he launched a super PAC to help progressive candidates engage Black communities. And last year, he was a surrogate for Mamdani, even organizing an event for the future mayor to meet with progressive Black leaders at Sankofa Haus.