Mayor Lori Lightfoot made history when she became the first Black, openly gay female mayor of Chicago in 2019, but she could make another kind of history as she is now projected to be the first incumbent candidate in city history not to advance to an April runoff to determine the city's leader.
Lightfoot, who soundly defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle to win the 2019 mayoral race, is currently running in third place in her reelection, and has conceded to Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, who appears to be headed toward a second-place finish, and a berth in the April 4 runoff.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to be mayor,” Lightfoot said in a concession speech.
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, largely seen as the frontrunner in the race, was projected to finish in the top-two in the race early in the evening by the Associated Press.
Lightfoot is the first elected incumbent to lose a reelection bid in the city since Jane Byrne was defeated by Harold Washington in the 1983 race.
She is also the first mayor not to at least make the runoff round in the election since municipal voting became non-partisan in 1999.
“Obviously, we didn’t win the election today, but I stand here with my head held high and a heart full of gratitude,” she said to supporters. “There’s more work to do, and I just want to say, thank you all deeply, deeply from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
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A whopping 14 candidates ran in the 2019 race, with Lightfoot securing the top spot in the race with 17.54% of the vote. She would later beat Preckwinkle handily, earning 73.7% of the vote in the runoff. She won all 50 of the city’s wards.
Lightfoot guided the city through one of its most tumultuous eras in recent memory, not only navigating through the chaos of the COVID pandemic but also during a summer of tumult that followed the death of George Floyd.
Lightfoot has largely run on her performance during that pandemic, insisting that her administration’s policies helped to keep residents safe, as well as on her record of new investments in organizations dedicated to improving life in underserved communities on the city’s South and West sides.
She also pushed through a plan to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.
She has faced criticism for increases in violent crime in the city, with most candidates running on public safety platforms during the 2023 election.
Lightfoot has argued that most crime in the city has continued to decrease, pointing to statistics that show homicides have decreased by 14% and shootings have fallen by 20% year-over-year.
Lightfoot also pointed to hiring more officers amid staffing challenges.
In other parts of her tenure, Lightfoot faced off with the Chicago Teachers Union on several occasions, with a strike lasting for several days in October 2019.
Lightfoot also spearheaded the planning of a casino that would be located in the city, with Bally’s Corporation landing the rights to build a new resort on the west bank of the Chicago River on the former site of the Chicago Tribune publishing plant.
Other criticisms followed Lightfoot as well, including her handling of a deal that would bring NASCAR to the city this summer for a road race, with alderpersons complaining that she had negotiated the deal without looping them into the process.
That race will shut down portions of the city for several weeks, including chunks of Grant Park, and could snarl traffic around the Fourth of July holiday.
Of course, Lightfoot could also face the wrath of Chicagoans for generations if the Chicago Bears ultimately leave the city. Despite her efforts to woo the team with renovation proposals for Soldier Field, the team has completed a purchase agreement from the site of the Arlington International Racecourse in Arlington Heights, and intends to pursue a new state-of-the-art stadium in the suburb.
She also saw criticism from environmentalists and community activists after the implosion of a smokestack at the Hilco plant in Little Village in 2020, with an inspector general’s report revealing that her administration had known about the possible consequences of the action, with a cloud of dust blanketing the neighborhood surrounding the plant.
As she spoke to supporters Tuesday in an early evening concession speech, Lightfoot recounted her record of investing in "communities that have been neglected for decades," increasing mental health services and making "record investments" in public schools. She thanked her supporters and said where one door closes, "another one opens."
"Obviously we didn't win the election today," she said, "but I stand here with my head held high and a heart full of gratitude."
