After a challenging tenure as the mayor of a city overrun by gun crime, Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to garner enough support to proceed to a runoff election on Tuesday.
Lori Lightfoot Lost In Reelection
Instead, the next mayor of Chicago will be chosen in a vote on April 4 between Paul Vallas, a former head of the Chicago Public Schools, along with Brandon Johnson, a Cook County commissioner. Lightfoot is the 1st governor to lose their position after serving just one term in 40 years. Just before nine o’clock at night, she called Vallas and Johnson to concede, and then she addressed her followers. In accordance to the Associated Press, Vallas had 34 percent of the vote after almost all of the ballots had been tallied, followed by Johnson with 20% and Lightfoot in last place with 16 percent. Rep. Jess “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) was fourth in the field.
Chicago Teachers Union Had A Conflict With Lori Lightfoot
The police union’s endorsement helped Vallas build a solid foundation of support, but he fell short of the required 50 % of the vote to win outright. The influential Chicago Teachers Union, which has been at conflict with Lightfoot since starting on an 11-day strike in 2019 as well as another work halt in 2022 over covid safety rules, gave nearly $1 million in donations to Johnson, a 46-year-old former teacher, to help him win support. Bobby L. Rush (D-III), a retired congressman, expressed disappointment that Lightfoot was not the nominee chosen by a majority of Black voters at Lightfoot’s election night party.
In a nine-person contest, she was one of 7 Black candidates. Rush charged Vallas with ignoring Black voters, especially when it came to addressing crime without over-policing Black communities. The problem will probably be among the major criticisms that Vallas, a White man competing against a Black man, Johnson, will have to deal with. Jennifer Jobst, 68, and Thomas Pusateri, 60, were close as the mayor hugged family along with supporters shortly after Lightfoot conceded.
Lori Lightfoot: 1st Black Woman Mayor Of Chicago
Lightfoot, 60, an ex-prosecutor, won every ward in the city after a runoff in 2019. She became the first Black woman and openly lesbian mayor of Chicago after receiving 73% of the vote. Since then, Lightfoot has battled with minimal approval ratings as she has led the city through a coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic impact on local businesses. She has also navigated deadly street violence.
Larry Williamson, Lightfoot promoter from North Lawndale on the West Side of Chicago, said in a recently taken interview that he believed it was misguided for voters to accuse Lightfoot for the spike in crime as she has had to confront the consequences from the pandemic and came into office after decades of lack of expenditures in certain communities.
The 66-year-old Garcia, a seasoned figure in Chicago Democratic politics who was very first chosen to Congress in 2018, also campaigned for mayor of Chicago in 2015 and rallied support from the extreme left to drive incumbent Emmanuel into a runoff. Local businessman Willie Wilson, state representative Kam Buckner, civil rights activist Ja’Mal Green, members of the City Council Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer, and Willie Wilson were the other five contenders, all of whom were Black.
Chicago municipal elections had not typically involved runoffs. That plan was implemented in the city in 1999, but Daley won with a commanding lead in both of his reelection campaigns in 2003 and 2007. Emanuel triumphed handily in 2011, but both his reelection in 2015 as well as Lightfoot’s initial campaign in 2019 required repeat elections.
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