President Joe Biden is apparently skittish about throwing his support behind a candidate in the Chicago mayoral race, Politico reported Wednesday.
According to the report, Biden sees the race between two bad choices: Paul Vallas, a former Republican and a far-left progressive, Brandon Johnson. The president will have to consider how the candidates’ track record on crime could open him up to attacks from Republicans and sow division within his own party, the outlet reported.
“Most Democrats look at the two choices and in an extreme sense they are choices between a Republican and a socialist,” said Pete Giangreco, an Illionis-based Democratic strategist, according to Politico. “There’s not a Joe Biden mainstream Democrat running for mayor of Chicago.”
Vallas, endorsed by the Fraternal Order of the Police and conservative groups, insists that he’s a “lifelong Democrat” but has made past comments critical of abortion.
Johnson has endorsed defunding police in the past, however he has tried to distance himself from his former position on law enforcement, claiming that his administration would staff and train 200 detectives to solve crimes.
.@PaulVallas & @Brandon4Chicago, Chicago’s two runoff mayoral candidates, sit on opposite ends of the two biggest topics: crime and education.
The two held their first debate on Wednesday night.https://t.co/tbXtAW9A2B
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 9, 2023
Big city crime has been a thorn in the side of Democrats, and Biden has tried to distance the party from the “defund the police” narrative. Biden has called for additional police funding and used his influence to help nix a crime reform bill in the nation’s capital, which would have lowered the penalties for various crimes.