*Lori Lightfoot is the mayor of Chicago no mo’. Well, she is until her current term is over. The bottom line is on Tuesday night (02-28-23) she lost her re-election because she didn’t win enough votes to make a runoff election in April.
Four years ago Lightfoot came into office after a huge election victory where she won all 50 of the city’s wards. Unfortunately, what did her in was voter unhappiness over rising crime and being on the losing end of battles with the powerful teacher’s union.
Tuesday night, Paul Vallas, a moderate Democrat who had won the support of the city’s police union, and Brandon Johnson, a liberal teacher’s union organizer, secured the two spots in April’s runoff election.
Lightfoot, who came in third place, knew it all over for her and threw in the towel, so to speak, just before 9pm Chicago time which was well ahead of all the votes being counted. She told supporters that she appreciated them and that she had called Vallas and Johnson to congratulate them. WATCH her concession speech above.
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Paul Vallas built his campaign around a pro-police, tough-on-crime message – one he highlighted in celebratory remarks after Lightfoot had called Vallas and Johnson to concede.
“We will have a safe Chicago. We will make Chicago the safest city in America,” Vallas said.
The big question over the next five weeks is whether Vallas’ more conservative message will attract enough support to win in a city where nearly 83% of votes in the 2020 presidential race went to the Democratic ticket.
Brandon Johnson, in his speech Tuesday night, showed the first signs that he will seek to consolidate liberals who supported other candidates in the nine-person field. He cited each candidate by name.
“If you voted for one of those other candidates, I want you to know that I’m running to be the mayor of you, too,” Johnson said.
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