Chicago’s first Black & lesbian mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D), the first Black woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to hold the office, has lost her bid for reelection. She failed to garner a simple majority of votes on Tuesday, making her the city’s first sitting mayor not to win a second term in 40 years.

As The New York Times notes, Lightfoot’s popularity suffered as crime in Chicago spiked during the pandemic.

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

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas (D) and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson (D) will now face off in April’s runoff election.

With 34 percent of the vote on Tuesday, Vallas led the crowded field and was the first candidate projected to advance to the runoff, according to The Hill. Running as a Democrat, Vallas courted conservative voters with a law-and-order message. He’s called for bolstering the police force and has been endorsed by the local Fraternal Order of Police whose controversial president, John Catanzara, resigned from the Chicago Police Department in 2021 amid accusations of misconduct and hateful social media posts, including one transphobic meme posted to Facebook in 2019.

Johnson, who has been endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, won 20 percent of Tuesday’s vote.

Both Democrats courted the LGBTQ+ vote, with Johnson promising…

Read full story, and more, from Source: Chicago’s first Black & lesbian mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid