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And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Ax Files, with your host David Axelrod.

Earlier this month, Brandon Johnson captured national attention with his election as the 57th mayor of my hometown, the City of Chicago.

A county commissioner and longtime teachers union organizer Johnson started the race at 2% in the polls and built a multi-racial progressive coalition in defeating eight candidates including the incumbent mayor Lori Lightfoot.

I sat down this week with Mayor Alak to take office on May 15th to talk about his extraordinary journey to this auspicious moment and his plans for the city's future, including the vexing problem of crime and public safety. Here's that conversation.

Mayor Alak, Brandon Johnson, it's great to see you. Congratulations, extraordinary election really.

Well, thank you so much, David. It's good to be with you all. And it is a very exciting, very humbly moment for me and of course the exciting moment I believe for the City of Chicago.

You know, we, I was thinking as I was walking over here about the time that the President elect Obama and I, we were all traveling to Washington and there was a limo, a presidential limo that President Bush sent to pick him up and take him to where he was staying.

And so once you ride with me, so I jump in the back seat. And of course, we both remembered when we were, when he was running for the Senate and we were walking around with a tin cup trying to get people to support us and we looked down at the phone and there was, there was a phone there and they are all these numbers, you know, vice president.

And he just looked at me and said, what a long strange trip. And, and you, you must feel that way too, because all of a sudden you're two weeks away from taking over this, what, 18 billion, 19 billion dollar corporation and more important stewardship of, of a city where people's lives are kind of in your hands.

That's right. I've had multiple moments where I've begin to just digest what just happened. And, you know, you never know what that thing is going to be that starts to resonate, you know, with, with me of what just happened. And, you know, you know, honestly, it was a very emotional moment.

But there were two firefighters who lost their lives serving the city of Chicago. And I attended after you were elected after I was elected. Yeah.

And I attended both of those services. Of those moments for me, it really began to sink in of the incredible responsibility that I do have as mayor of the city of Chicago where there are individuals who are on the front line every single day.

And it is their job to keep everyone safe at the expense of their own in, in, in, in, in these instances. And what an incredible responsibility to have. And I think I'm grateful to all of our first responders.

You know, Mitch Landry, and I want to, I hesitate to tell you this story, just as you're just setting out on this mission. But I, I did a podcast like this with him at the end of his eight years as mayor of New Orleans. And I said, and we're walking along the street and he's pointing out all the things that they were able to accomplish. And I said, you sound like a guy who's going to miss this job.

So I'm going to miss this part of the job. I'm not going to miss having a cell phone strap to me at night so that I don't miss an emergency that comes in the middle of the night. It's a, it's an awesome responsibility. But before we get to any of that, you have an extraordinary story, not just the election, but your personal story. And I really want people to, and I want to explore it. But, you know, first of all, the thing that strikes me right away is one of 10 kids.

Yes, 10 kids in an, in Elgin Illinois, suburb of, of Chicago, three bedroom house, kind of roughly. Yes.

Two ish, but yes, three bedrooms, one bathroom, one bathroom. Yeah, I saw you said somewhere you honed your negotiating skills around that bathroom time.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, with that many siblings, my parents were also foster parents. So there were times where, you know, our home, not quite the size of city council.

But, you know, very few things are the size of Chicago city. Exactly. That's all 50 members. Yes.

It might be another podcast for someone else.

You know, but, you know, there were times, of course, where it was actually quite chaotic. And, you know, in retrospect, it's hard to even imagine how, you know, you survive those moments.

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