CHICAGO — Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas squared off in the latest mayoral forum held ahead of Chicago’s mayoral runoff election Saturday.

The forum, hosted by One Chicago For All, an alliance made up of 28 community organizations around Chicago, asked each candidate questions based on seven topics, which included public safety’s effect on the youth, education, affordable housing, and how each candidate would support small businesses, among others.

“We have to create opportunities for those economic drivers a lot earlier, before you even get to high school,” Johnson said. “So, that’s about trades, that’s about manufacturing jobs.”

Both candidates verbally committed to working with the collective on various topics if elected into office.

“I already told all 24 unions that are endorsing me that they are going to have to create work study opportunities for both our high school, as well as college students,” Vallas said.

When asked about small business support — specifically for minority owners and their access to capital — Vallas focused on systemic mechanisms pushing development forward, while Johnson emphasized a need to be more proactive when it comes to funding small businesses.

“We need to set up a mechanism so that we create an economic development authority that focuses exclusively on these areas,” Vallas said. “But promoting the types of businesses that can create local leadership and local wealth.”

“We need to move away from reimbursements and towards grants,”...

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