Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Loses Reelection Bid: 'Head Held High'
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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has lost her bid for reelection, the Associated Press reports.
Lightfoot, 60, made history as the city's first black woman and first gay person to be elected mayor in 2019. She failed to garner enough votes to get a second term on Tuesday, with her opponents, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, advancing to a runoff after neither got the 50% of votes needed to win the race outright.
The runoff election will be held April 4.
Lightfoot faced an uphill battle for reelection, with her opponents seizing on voter concerns about an increase in crime both in Chicago and other large cities across the U.S. in recent years.
In a speech delivered Tuesday, Lightfoot said her tenure as mayor was "the honor of a lifetime."
Serving as your mayor has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all of you who have stood beside me these last four years.
We’ve made significant progress building a safer, more equitable city. I thank each and every one of you for believing in me. pic.twitter.com/l33IGevNPC— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) March 1, 2023
"Obviously, we didn't win the election. But I stand here with my head held high and my heart full of thanks," Lightfoot told supporters, the Chicago-Sun Times reports.
"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.
Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor-turned-corporate lawyer and police reformer, placed third in Tuesday's race with 17.06% of the vote.
She overwhelmingly won Chicago's mayoral race in 2019, securing roughly 75% of the vote to become the city's first female mayor since the '80s and only its second female mayor ever.
Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot
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In a thank-you message on her campaign website after her victory, Lightfoot described her win as "a historic achievement and the start of a new day for our diverse, incredible city."
Her most public role previously had been serving as president of Chicago's civilian Police Board, which handles officer discipline.
Her single term as mayor was one marked by the global pandemic, civil unrest, infighting over the reopening of schools, and crime, which polls showed was top-of-mind for voters.
But some political experts said it may have been Lightfoot's own style of governance—and the reason she was first elected—that wound up backfiring on her this time around.
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"Everybody's strength is their weakness. Her strength is she's a very pugilistic person. She's fought for everything she's gotten in her life — often against great barriers," veteran political strategist David Axelrod told the Sun-Times.
Axelrod added: "Lori Lightfoot got elected because she was tough, and she was seen as independent of the whole political structure here. Those were considered assets. Now, in retrospect, her strengths may have been weaknesses in governing."
