Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is facing a tough re-election campaign as she faces eight challengers in the city’s elections on Tuesday. Lightfoot is the first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as mayor, and if she loses her bid to return to city hall, she would become the first Chicago mayor in decades to run for re-election and fail.
With nine candidates in the race, it is unlikely that anyone will exceed the 50 percent threshold needed to win the officially nonpartisan election outright, meaning the winner is likely to be decided in an April 4 runoff between the top two vote-getters. Crime has become a major focal point in the election, with Republicans seeking to win over voters by depicting Democratic-led cities as lawless centres of violence that need tough-on-crime policies.
Most observers peg the race as a four-person contest among Lightfoot, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, US Representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Cook County Board Commissioner Brandon Johnson. Vallas is the only white candidate in the race and is positioning himself as a moderate, with backing from the Chicago police union. He has said “crime is out of control” and the city needs hundreds more officers patrolling its streets.
Jaime Domínguez, a political science professor at Northwestern University, said it’s the first time in 20 years that he’s seen public safety be “front and centre” in a Chicago mayoral election. The difference, he said, is that crime is no longer largely isolated to some predominantly Black and Latino neighbourhoods, but rather is occurring in other parts of the highly segregated city, including in the downtown and other areas frequented by tourists.
Lightfoot has accused mayoral candidate Johnson of wanting to defund the police, using video of him speaking on a local radio programme in 2020. During the interview, Johnson said reducing the amount of money spent on policing isn’t a slogan but “an actual real political goal”. Garcia, the only Hispanic candidate, is focusing hard on Latino neighbourhoods and Hispanic TV and radio.
Rising crime rates have affected local races across the US, from San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York City and Philadelphia. In Chicago, as of January 1, 2023, there were 1.6 million registered voters. As of Sunday, 207,940 voters had cast advance ballots. In the 2022 primary election, 49 percent of Chicago voters cast their ballots before election day. Mail-in ballots can arrive as late as March 14 and be counted so long as they are postmarked by election day. Election officials have said the number of mail ballots is up sharply from the last mayor’s race, in 2019, which could delay results.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is facing a difficult re-election campaign with eight challengers vying for her seat in Tuesday’s elections. Lightfoot made history as the first Black woman and first openly gay person to serve as mayor, and if she fails to win her bid for re-election, she would become the first Chicago mayor in decades to fail at running for re-election.
With nine candidates in the race, it is unlikely that any one candidate will receive more than 50 percent of the votes needed to win the officially nonpartisan election outright. This means that the winner will likely be determined in an April 4 runoff between the top two vote-getters. Crime has become a major issue in this election, with Republicans seeking to win over voters by depicting Democratic-led cities as lawless centres of violence that need tough-on-crime policies.
Most observers believe that the race will come down to four candidates: Lightfoot, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, US Representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Cook County Board Commissioner Brandon Johnson. Vallas is the only white candidate in the race and is positioning himself as a moderate with backing from the Chicago police union. He has said that “crime is out of control” and that the city needs hundreds more officers patrolling its streets.
Jaime Domínguez, a political science professor at Northwestern University, said it’s the first time in 20 years that he’s seen public safety be “front and centre” in a Chicago mayoral election. The difference, he said, is that crime is no longer largely isolated to some predominantly Black and Latino neighbourhoods; it is occurring in other parts of the highly segregated city, including downtown and other areas frequented by tourists.
Lightfoot has accused mayoral candidate Johnson of wanting to defund the police, using video of him speaking on a local radio programme in 2020. During the interview, Johnson said reducing the amount of money spent on policing isn’t a slogan but “an actual real political goal”. Garcia, the only Hispanic candidate, is focusing hard on Latino neighbourhoods and Hispanic TV and radio.
Rising crime rates have affected local races across the US from San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York City and Philadelphia. In Chicago, as of January 1, 2023 there were 1.6 million registered voters; as of Sunday 207,940 voters had cast advance ballots. In the 2022 primary election 49 percent of Chicago voters cast their ballots before election day. Mail-in ballots can arrive as late as March 14 and be counted so long as they are postmarked by election day. Election officials have said that the number of mail ballots is up sharply from the last mayor’s race in 2019 which could delay results.