Lori Lightfoot

2023 - 2 - 28

Chicago Mayor - Lightfoot - chicago elections 2023 - chicago mayoral election - chicago mayoral election 2023 - chicago mayoral election results - mayor of Chicago

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

Chicago Mayoral Race: Lori Lightfoot Faces Challengers (The New York Times)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot faces a wide field of challengers on Tuesday, including one front-runner who has portrayed Chicago as a city in disarray.

Mr. Lightfoot, Mr. Vallas and Mr. [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U_95FO70Jo) in a television interview in 2009 that he considered himself more of a Republican than a Democrat, a strike against Mr. Lightfoot appeared to have made more enemies than friends as mayor, struggled to find support on the City Council and gained a reputation as a pugilistic and mercurial leader. Then, in 2020, the pandemic hit, sending unemployment soaring and leaving skyscrapers in the Loop mostly empty of workers and Chicago businesses struggling to survive. “When the pandemic broke out, her and the governor shut Chicago down,” said Ms. “I’m not a huge Vallas supporter,” she said, “but he seems to be the best of the lot.” In the Beverly neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago on Tuesday, Megan Hayes, a 40-year-old mother and lifelong city resident, said crime was the biggest issue facing the city. But it also demonstrated the uniquely Chicago peril of leading the city with no natural base or ward to count on for loyal support in tough times: Ms. Vallas had won 34 percent of the vote, and Mr. With an estimated 94 percent of ballots counted as of Tuesday night, Mr.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will lose reelection bid, CNN projects ... (CNN)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for a second term Tuesday, failing to make a top-two runoff in the latest demonstration of growing concerns about ...

He’d attacked her record on crime early in the campaign and was backed by the conservative police union. Karen Bass](https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/16/politics/karen-bass-mayor-los-angeles/index.html) last year over billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who had pumped $100 million into a campaign in which he had focused on a pitch for law and order. Chicago’s municipal elections are non-partisan, but none of the candidates on the ballot Tuesday called themselves Republicans. [Mayor Eric Adams won](https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/02/politics/new-york-city-mayor-election-results/index.html) with a pro-police, tough-on-crime message in 2021. Tuesday’s municipal election marked the first time in more than 30 years that Chicago has ditched its mayor. Violence in the city spiked in 2020 and 2021. The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Vallas. In New York City, Pritzker, with whom Lightfoot has clashed, stayed out of the race entirely. The Chicago Teachers Union backed Johnson. Concerns about crime and public safety have rattled Chicago. Lightfoot found herself with few allies in her bid for a second term, and a host of powerful interests aligned against her.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot concedes (Politico)

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson are two runoff competitors who could hardly be more different among Lightfoot's leading challengers.

After polls closed earlier in the evening, a person close to Lightfoot’s campaign said they expected to wait for mail-in ballots to trickle in over the next few days. … Paul Vallas is the author of the tale of two cities.” When he didn’t qualify for the Chicago mayoral runoff in 2019, he endorsed Lightfoot. “We didn’t win the election today, but I stand here with my head held high and heart full of gratitude.” ... But I will be reading and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people for years to come.” Vallas, who is white, ran to the right of Lightfoot and has focused primarily on public safety.

Lori Lightfoot fails to advance to runoff vote for second term as ... (The Guardian)

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson qualify for election on 4 April to replace city's first Black female and gay mayor.

Vallas denied his comments were related to race and said his union endorsement was from officers. A recent Chicago Tribune story found Vallas’s Twitter account liked racist tweets and tweets that mocked Lightfoot’s appearance and referred to her as masculine. The US congressman Jesús “Chuy” García was the only Latino. But opponents blamed her for an increase in crime that occurred in cities across the US during the pandemic and criticized her as being a divisive leader. Lightfoot, Johnson and five other candidates are Black, though Lightfoot argued she was the only Black candidate who could win. We will make Chicago the safest city in America.”

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Loses Bid in Attempt to Win Reelection ... (Shine My Crown)

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to clinch a second term as the city's mayor after voters denied the incumbent a chance to lead Illinois' capital.

He also thanked his wife for her support, stating that if he wins, “a Black woman will still be in charge.” But critics say [crime has skyrocketed](https://apnews.com/article/politics-2022-midterm-elections-lori-lightfoot-chicago-1441bca5446f2eb30cd9dfe377f85fff) since assuming the post and has been critiqued for being “a divisive, overly contentious leader,” according to an [Associated Press report](https://apnews.com/article/chicago-mayor-election-2023-73b7ffa6da2ad2f301674c5c23e08560?utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter). In 2019, she won her first term and vowed to end years of corruption in the city’s political arena.

Lori Lightfoot's Downfall Is Bigger Than Just Chicago (Vanity Fair)

Voters have sent conservative Democrat Paul Vallas and progressive Brandon Johnson to an April run-off, kicking sitting-mayor Lightfoot out of the running ...

“We will make Chicago the safest city in America,” Vallas [said](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/28/paul-vallas-chicago-mayoral-runoff-00084904) in a primary victory speech Tuesday. But support [fizzled through 2021](https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/new-poll-chicago-residents-concerns-over-violent-crime-growing/), amid a spike in violent crime, and continued to [plummet](https://theharrispoll.com/briefs/chicago-mayoral-election/) through 2022, despite improvements in [some public safety metrics](https://news.wttw.com/2023/01/04/chicago-homicides-declined-2022-total-still-among-highest-90s) that she cited during her reelection campaign in an effort to combat attacks from her opponents. [reported](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/paul-vallas-chicago-mayoral-election) earlier this week, those attacks proved especially potent for Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO who has run on a conservative, “tough-on-crime” platform that echoes Eric Adams’ winning bid for New York mayor a little more than a year ago. It’s unclear if Lightfoot herself will make an endorsement or which of her two rivals she’d back, but on Tuesday she called each to congratulate them on making the runoff, and Where her middle ultimately goes could be as potent a symbol for national attitudes on issues of public safety as her loss itself. Meanwhile, Johnson, who took about 20 percent of Tuesday’s vote, would get to about 40, if voters from the race’s other more progressive candidates—United States Congressman Chuy Garcia, 27-year-old activist Ja’Mal Green, State Representative Kam Buckner, and Alds. [The American West](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-right-civil-war?itm_content=footer-recirc&itm_campaign=more-great-stories-022723) Though Lightfoot certainly faced criticism for her handling of COVID and the 2020 racial justice protests—including the city’s “It’s been the honor of a lifetime to be mayor,” Lightfoot “Obviously, we didn’t win the election today," she added, "but I stand here with my head held high and a heart full of gratitude.” Lightfoot, who had never held elected office until then, had not only vowed to usher in police reform in a city still reeling from the murder of Laquan McDonald and the handling of it by her predecessor; she'd promised to “remake” the city’s infamous machine-style politics. “I really hope that Lori can be the light for this city,” one supporter

Chicago mayoral race: What Lori Lightfoot's defeat means for ... (Vox)

Incumbent mayors in Chicago almost never lose a reelection bid. But Lori Lightfoot ran into an issue that's plaguing Democrats across the country.

And congressional Democrats are responding with scrutiny on local crime policy after facing a flurry of attacks from Republicans during the midterms for their [supposed weakness on crime](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23433184/crime-midterms-oz-fetterman-pennsylvania-senate). Also not helping Lightfoot’s case was the fact that particularly visible property crimes, like burglaries and theft, did increase last year ( [as they have in other cities](https://counciloncj.org/mid-year-2022-crime-trends/)). In New York, it led to the election of Eric Adams as mayor, who pledged to make crime his top priority. Johnson is [running as a progressive](https://chicagocitywire.com/stories/639580998-all-but-one-mayoral-candidate-wants-to-continue-community-policing-vallas-would-hire-nearly-2-000-more-cops) hoping to attack root causes for crime: Instead of cuts to police budgets, he calls for better mental health treatment and schools, addressing poverty, and training new detectives to solve homicides and find illegal guns. Back then, she had pledged to clean up the city’s [ political machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVo9raTWeNE), reduce violence across the city, and invest in Black and brown neighborhoods. [property crimes have risen](https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/1_PDFsam_CompStat-Public-2023-Week-9.pdf) over the last four years. A progressive challenger, Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson, came in second, with support concentrated in the city’s racially diverse and mixed north and northwest neighborhoods, where he spoke about crime in a more nuanced way. Crime rates rose during the pandemic and have since moderated a bit, but some visible kinds of crime have continued to test Democrats politically. [crime surged during the outbreak](https://apnews.com/article/politics-2022-midterm-elections-lori-lightfoot-chicago-1441bca5446f2eb30cd9dfe377f85fff), reaching levels not seen in the city since the 1990s. Because of this, and because of Lightfoot’s poor relationship with other political leaders, she was viewed as the underdog, just like in her last race. The coronavirus pandemic dealt a huge economic hit to the city, and violent She made it again last night, becoming the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose a reelection bid.