How Lori Lightfoot became the first Chicago mayor to lose reelection in 40 years

Lightfoot rose to Chicago’s top political position in 2019, in a race in which she won all 50 of the city’s wards. At the time, she ran on a promise to end corruption and backroom dealing. The 60-year-old was Chicago’s first Black female mayor and the first openly gay mayor of the United States’ third-largest city.

Kamil Krzaczynski—Getty Images

So what happened? Two major forces are to blame: a battle with powerful unions and a rise in crime that voters and opponents blamed on the mayor.

Lightfoot has spent recent months locked in a battle with the Chicago Teachers Union. The animosity goes back four years, to when Lightfoot first took office; a teachers’ strike that year grew contentious. School closures and Lightfoot’s efforts to reopen schools during the pandemic didn’t help; the union pushed back against early 2021 reopening plans and accused Lightfoot of failing to negotiate. The union backed Lightfoot’s competitor, Brandon Johnson, a former teacher who surged late in the campaign and will now advance to the runoff.

Other candidates—including Paul Vallas, who earned the most votes yesterday with a tough-on-crime, pro-police message—capitalized on a concern among Chicagoans about crime levels. Lightfoot also fought with the city’s police union over a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Lightfoot conceded the race last night. “I will be rooting and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people of the city for years to come,” she said in her concession speech.

By a twist of fate, the last Chicago mayor to lose reelection was Jane Byrne in 1983. Byrne was the city’s first female mayor.

Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe

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