Chicago mayoral election heads to runoff between two Black women

In an historic election result for the city, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle will square off in an April 2 runoff

Feb 27, 2019

Lori Lightfoot (L) will face Toni Preckwinkle in the Chicago mayoral election runoff on April 2. (Getty Images)

Chicago is on the verge of electing its first Black woman Mayor in the Windy City’s history as Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle move on to a mayoral runoff, CNN reports.

Out of the 14 candidates on the ballot, as it stands, Lightfoot secured 7.48% of the vote and Preckwinkle had 15.96% with 95% of precincts reporting, according to Chicago’s Board of Elections. Turnout was light, however, with only 515,000 people showing up to the polls.

According to CNN affiliate WBBM, the runoff will be held April 2. The women are vying to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who left the Barack Obama White House to lead his hometown and has been in office for eight years. He declined to run again last September.

Whoever wins the election will be the second woman to be mayor of Chicago after Jane Byrne, who served from 1979 to 1983; and third Black mayor after Harold Washington who was in office from 1983 to 1987 and Eugene Sawyer from 1987-1989.

Lightfoot, 56, a former prosecutor, who is openly gay, won endorsement from the Chicago Sun-Times on her promise of being an effective steward for the city’s residents “from the hedge fund managers to the fast food workers,” the newspaper says.

She has been an outspoken critic when City Hall gets it wrong, even calling out her own bosses. She has operated with honesty and integrity, the newspaper wrote.

Emanuel appointed Lightfoot to head a task force to look into the incident and overall practices of the police, and Lightfoot’s task force came back with a scathing report, according to the Sun-Times, which called the community’s distrust of the police “justified” and said the police union contract turned a “code of silence into official policy.”

“This, my friends, is what change looks like,” a beaming Lightfoot told her supporters Tuesday night. “I want to thank the voters of this great city for fighting through the noise and coming to a place where we brought in the light.”

Preckwinkle, 71, is the Cook County Board president. She has focused on livable wages of making $15 min and education as top campaign priorities.

However, Preckwinkle, who was considered a frontrunner was embroiled in controversy linked to her relationship with Ed Burke, a Chicago alderman who was charged with a federal crime after authorities discovered evidence he was steering business to his private lawfirm. Burke did win re-election Tuesday to the city’s 14th Ward.

Still she is noted for her work in reducing the population in Cook County jail and stood for the decriminalization of small amounts of Marijuana. She also won the support of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employees International Union, the latter being considered essential in most big city elections.

“We may not yet be at the finish line, but we should acknowledge that history is being made,” Preckwinkle told her supporters at a rally Tuesday night, according to the Chicago Tribune. “It’s clear we’re at a defining moment in our city’s history, but the challenges that our city faces are not simply ideological. It’s not enough to say Chicago stands at a crossroads. We need to fight to change its course.”