Following the election of progressive candidate Brandon Johnson as the mayor of Chicago, right-wing media figures and outlets melted down, claiming his election will lead to increased death and “destruction” in the city and urging residents to flee.

Johnson, who was supported by teachers unions, won the runoff election on April 4, defeating fellow Democratic candidate Paul Vallas. The former public school teacher campaigned on providing more resources to public schools and investing in social programs to address crime, as well as many other progressive issues.

Right-wing media swiftly began to go nuts following Johnson’s victory. Noted bigots like Fox News star Tucker Carlson and The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh falsely claimed Johnson is an “open racist” who “ran an explicitly racialized, anti-white campaign.” Walsh and many others also characterized Johnson’s victory as spelling doom for the city of Chicago:

• Walsh: “The people of Chicago are self-destructive morons who want their communities to collapse. They want to live amidst crime and filth. There's not much we can do about that except to let them suffer the way they apparently want to suffer.”
• Infowars guest host Mike Adams: Johnson will “probably turn Chicago into the worst crime-infested zone of violence and lawlessness, destitution that America has ever seen.”
• Fox News anchor Harris Faulker asked: Is Johnson “another nightmare” for Chicago?
• Faulkner later also asked: “How are the far left able to package financial destruction and violent crime such that people keep voting for it?”
• Fox host Will Cain said Chicagoans displayed a “window of sanity” by opting not to reelect Mayor Lori Lightfoot, but then doubled down on a “permanency of insanity” by electing Johnson. Cain later warned there might be a “racial reckoning” in the city and urged residents to flee Chicago.
• Far-right troll Mike Cernovich: “Chicago will be burning soon. Please stay away. This man is pure evil. He would open every jail cell housing violent criminals.”
• Fox political analyst Gianno Caldwell: “The horrific result we saw with the election of Brandon Johnson, to me, was the signing of thousands of death certificates of people who don't have to die because of the policies which he's advocated for.”
• Fox contributor Leo Terrell: “Lori Lightfoot destroyed half the city, Brandon Johnson is going to destroy the other half of Chicago. He is going to take his marching orders from the unions. I would expect and recommend every person who believes in law and order in Chicago, get out of Chicago, go to Florida, go somewhere else.”
• RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar: “Chicago's election results confirmed that its voters are living in an alternate reality, or they enjoy living in a broke, crime-ridden city. Or maybe they subscribe to Chelsea Handler’s theory that true communism hasn’t really been tried yet.”
• Far-right blog Gateway Pundit: “CHICAGO GOES FULL COMMIE: Radical Marxist Brandon Johnson Is Predicted Winner in Mayor’s Race Against Pro-Police Moderate Candidate Paul Vallas.”
• Conservative blog Hot Air: “Chicago chooses chaos over recovery.”
• National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin: “It's not as if Paul Vallas was even good. He just wasn't completely nuts. But the Democrat base in Chicago wanted completely nuts.”
• Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer: “Devastating for Chicago.”
• Fox contributor Marc Thiessen: “Reminds me of what Ed Koch said after he lost the New York mayoral race: ‘The people have spoken, and they must be punished.’”
• Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis: “Chicago has fallen.”
• Fox contributor Joe Concha: “So after Lori Lightfoot was ousted primarily on her failure on crime, enough voters in Chicago somehow voted for someone even softer on the crisis. What an absolute travesty. The exodus out of Chicago - a once-great city - will only accelerate now.”