“They screamin,’ ‘Chano for mayor,’ I’m thinkin’ maybe I should.”
A group of Chance the Rapper fans in Chicago are trying to bring the rapper’s “Somewhere in Paradise” lyrics to fruition by urging Chano to run for mayor.
The #Chano4Mayor campaign website, launched on April 1, was created by a group of young people in the city, including 23-year-old game designer Bea Malsky.
Malsky told the Chicago Sun-Times that they’d love to see the rapper run against incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is slated to compete for the seat again in 2019. The rapper has earned an admirable reputation for his political activism and philanthropy, including a recent million-dollar donation to the Chicago Public Schools system.
The website cites a dissatisfaction with the way Emanuel has governed the city, specifically in terms of its public schools.
“Rahm Emanuel has been in office since 2011,” the website reads. “In that time we’ve seen the closure of 50 public schools, the largest in history.” It also goes on to lament the closure of half of the city’s mental health clinics and the shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Emanuel’s administration defended itself against the statements on the campaign’s website.
“We’re focused on continuing to build on the record educational gains our students and teachers are making at Chicago Public Schools, driving economic development in every neighborhood across the city and addressing our public-safety challenge by combating the scourge of gun violence,” Emanuel’s spokesperson Matt McGrath said in a statement to the Sun-Times.
But even if Chance opts out of challenging Emanuel ― which is highly probable given his father, Ken Bennett, works as the deputy chief of staff and director for Emanuel’s Office of Public Engagement ― Malsky said they hope he can at least endorse one of the mayoral candidates.
“We would be very happy if he’d become more politically involved and he endorsed a candidate who stands up for the same things that he stands up for in his music,” she told the Sun-Times.
According to a video posted by TMZ, a Chano mayoral campaign might even have the support of rapper Drake. When paparazzi asked the singer-rapper whether he thinks Chance would make a good mayor, he casually replied with, “Yeah, I do.”
The campaign’s Twitter account has garnered nearly 100 followers as of Wednesday afternoon. Chance the Rapper’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Your call, Chano.
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