Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been defeated and will soon be out of a job.
Politics :
Lori Lightfoot made history in 2019 by becoming the first Black woman and the first openly gay person to be elected mayor of Chicago. However, on Tuesday, her hopes for a 2nd term were dashed when she not only lost re-election but failed to even qualify for a run-off election.
With nearly 99% of the precincts reporting, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Democratic incumbent finished third in Tuesday’s election with only 17.06% of the vote behind former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, who won 33.77 %, and Cook County Commissioner and Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson, who wound up with 20.29%.
This means that both Vallas and Johnson will compete in a special run-off election on April 4th and Mayor Lightfoot will need to bow out gracefully.
“Obviously, we didn’t win the election. But I stand here with my head held high and my heart full of thanks,” the mayor told supporters late Tuesday night. “You will not be defined by how you fall. You will be defined by how hard you work and how much you do for other people,” she added.
So, what happened?
According to NBC News, Chicagoans went to the polls with the intention of delivering a very stark message: they wanted change.
Voters expressed they were exhausted by persistent gun violence, carjackings, and robberies in the city and were willing to make Lightfoot the first incumbent Chicago mayor to lose re-election since 1983. In fact, a recent Sun-Times poll discovered that 63% of Chicagoans didn’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods.
Lightfoot launched her re-election campaign with a public approval rating stuck in the mid-20s. She also lost needed support among Black voters in an election crowded with 6 other Black candidates competing against her.
Mayor Lightfoot now joins former mayor Jane Byrne as only the second incumbent mayor in Chicago history to lose an election and to embarrassingly fail to even make the run-off election.
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses re-election.
Yahoo: Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot attributed her election loss to racism and sexism in comments to reporters Tuesday night, glossing over the impact of violent crime, which surged in the windy city during her tenure. Lightfoot failed to make the April runoff, losing to Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, who outflanked her from the right and left respectively. Crime had become the leading issue in the election, leading Lightfoot to pivot towards supporting the police. “I’m a black woman in America. Of course,” she replied when asked by a reporter if she had been treated unfairly, according to the New York Post. Lightfoot neglected to mention that Johnson is also black. Nevertheless, she called her time as Chicago’s mayor “the honor of a lifetime.” “Regardless of tonight’s outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path,” Lightfoot said. The comments made Tuesday night were… Read more »