Chicago's Lesbian Mayor Lori Lightfoot Resoundingly Loses Reelection

(CNN) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot won't return for a second term in office as Paul Vallas, a long-time public schools chief, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will advance to an April runoff election, CNN projects.

Tuesday's municipal election marks the first time in 40 years Chicago is set to ditch its mayor, after voters turned on Lightfoot amid growing concerns about crime and the city's slow recovery from the pandemic.

"Right now, there's no more important issue than public safety," Vallas told reporters after casting his vote Tuesday. "Public safety has got to be our priority No. 1."

Because no candidate is on course to top 50% in Tuesday's election, the top two of the nine candidates on the ballot will move on to the April 4 runoff.

Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first out gay person to serve as mayor in a major city often pilloried by conservatives in national debates over violence and gun control, rose to prominence as a pugnacious reformer promising a break from the corruption and clubby governance that had long marked Chicago politics.

But years of contentious brawls over policing, teacher pay and Covid-19 public safety policies, as well as mounting complaints about long waits in Chicago's public transit system, left Lightfoot vulnerable, raising the stunning prospect of the Second City ousting its incumbent mayor in the first round of voting.

Lightfoot found herself with few allies in her bid for a second term, and a host of powerful interests aligned against her. The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Vallas. The Chicago Teachers Union backed Johnson. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, with whom Lightfoot has clashed, stayed out of the race entirely.

More than 507,000 ballots had been cast by the time polls closed Tuesday, Chicago elections officials said. More mail-in votes will be added to that total as they arrive.

Concerns about crime and public safety have rattled Chicago. Violence in the city spiked in 2020 and 2021. And though shootings and murders have decreased since then, other crimes -- including theft, car-jacking, robberies and burglaries -- have increased since last year, according to the Chicago Police Department's 2022 year-end report.

The dynamic has been similar to what played out in other big-city mayoral elections in recent years. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams won with a pro-police, tough-on-crime message in 2021. But in Los Angeles, voters elected Rep. Karen Bass last year over billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who had pumped $100 million into a campaign in which he had focused on a pitch for law and order.

Chicago's municipal elections are non-partisan, but none of the candidates on the ballot Tuesday called themselves Republicans. Still, Lightfoot sought to portray Vallas that way. He'd attacked her record on crime early in the campaign and was backed by the conservative police union.

Johnson, meanwhile, ate away at Lightfoot's support among progressives. He once advocated reducing police funding, but has backtracked from that message more recently, arguing that he meant he wants to increase funding for other priorities such as mental health treatment.

"Lori Lightfoot hasn't made Chicago safer, but I will," he said in an ad. "It's time to get smart, not just tough."

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
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