Incumbent Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

• Lori Lightfoot, the current Mayor of Chicago, lost her reelection bid, coming in third place behind Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson.
• Vallas and Johnson will face off in an April 4 runoff since neither of them were able to secure more than 50% of the vote.
• Vallas is a former schools CEO who was backed by the police union, while Johnson is a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union.

In a surprising result, incumbent Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for reelection to Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson. Vallas, a former schools CEO who was backed by the police union, and Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, will face off in an April 4 runoff since neither of them were able to secure more than 50% of the vote.

Lightfoot, the first Black woman and openly gay person to lead the city, won her first term in 2019 after promising to end corruption and backroom dealing in City Hall.

Opponents of Lightfoot, however, criticized her for an increase in crime during the pandemic and for being a divisive, overly contentious leader. Lightfoot called being Chicago’s mayor “the honor of a lifetime” and said that regardless of the outcome, she fought for the right fights and put the city on a better path. She also urged fellow mayors to not fear being bold.

Crime was a major issue in this election, with Vallas calling for adding hundreds of police officers to patrol the city and Johnson advocating for more investment in mental health care, education, jobs, and affordable housing.

Vallas’ opponents criticized him as too conservative to lead the Democratic stronghold, while Lightfoot blasted him for welcoming support from the police union’s controversial leader who defended the Jan. 6 insurrectionists at the Capitol and equated Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate for city workers to the Holocaust. Johnson, on the other hand, was accused by rivals of wanting to defund the police, but he denied it and said he does not want to cut the number of police officers.

The election in Chicago is a sign of the turmoil in U.S. cities following the COVID-19 pandemic, with its economic fallout and spikes in violent crime in many places. Lightfoot’s loss is unusual for mayors in large cities, who have tended to win reelection with relative ease.

Other recent elections, such as the recall of a San Francisco district attorney who was criticized for progressive policies, also had public safety as a major issue. The pandemic may also shape elections for mayor in other cities this year, such as Philadelphia and Houston, where incumbents cannot run again due to term limits.

Source: apnews.com