Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson are to meet in a runoff to be the next mayor of Chicago after voters on Tuesday denied Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot a second term, issuing a rebuke to the leader of the nation’s third-largest city.
Vallas, a former schools CEO backed by the police union, and Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, advanced to the April 4 runoff after none of the nine candidates was able to secure more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright.
Lightfoot won her first term in 2019 after promising to end decades of corruption and backroom dealing at city hall.
Photo: AFP
However, opponents blamed Lightfoot for an increase in crime that occurred in cities across the US during the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized her as being a divisive, overly contentious leader.
She is the first elected Chicago mayor to lose a re-election bid since 1983, when Jane Byrne, the city’s first female mayor, lost her Democratic primary.
Speaking to supporters on Tuesday night, Lightfoot called being Chicago’s mayor “the honor of a lifetime.”
“Regardless of tonight’s outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path,” Lightfoot said.
She told her fellow mayors around the country not to fear being bold.
At his victory party, Vallas said that Lightfoot had called to congratulate him and asked the crowd to give her a round of applause.
In a nod to his campaign promise to combat crime, he said that, if elected, he would work to address public safety issues.
“We will have a safe Chicago. We will make Chicago the safest city in America,” Vallas said.
Johnson noted the improbability that he would make the runoff, considering his low name recognition at the start of the race.
“A few months ago they said they didn’t know who I was. Well, if you didn’t know, now you know,” Johnson said.
He thanked the unions that supported him and gave a special shout-out to his wife, telling the crowd: “Chicago, a black woman will still be in charge.”
Lightfoot’s loss is unusual for mayors in large cities, who have tended to win re-election with relative ease.
However, it is also a sign of the turmoil in US cities following the COVID-19 pandemic, with its economic fallout and spikes in violent crime in many places.
Public safety has been an issue in other recent elections, including the recall of a San Francisco district attorney who was criticized for progressive policies.
The pandemic also might shape elections for mayor in other cities this year, such as Philadelphia and Houston, where incumbents cannot run again due to term limits.
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