Incumbent Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid on Tuesday, with the vote count showing that two of her rivals will face each other in a runoff election on April 4.
The hardline crime candidate, Paul Vallas, 69, a former principal of public schools in the Windy City and Philadelphia who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Chicago in 2019, took first place with 34.9 percent of the vote.
Brandon Johnson, a Cook County Commissioner and an organizer of the Chicago Teachers Union, secured the other spot in the runoff with 20.2 percent of the vote. Lightfoot received about 17 percent of the vote, leaving her out of the running.
The Chicago race is technically nonpartisan, but each candidate identifies as a Democrat in the heavily left-leaning city.
Polls showed that public safety is by far the number one concern among residents of the third-largest US city.
The hard-crime candidate, Paul Vallas, 69, a former principal of public schools in the Windy City and Philadelphia who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Chicago in 2019
Brandon Johnson, a Cook County Commissioner and an organizer of the Chicago Teachers Union, secured the other spot in the runoff, with 20.2 percent of the vote
Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her reelection over criticism of her soft-on-crime approach amid a steady spike in violence. Pictured: Lightfoot at her election night rally on Feb. 28
The city’s police union supports Vallas, while the teachers’ union is behind Johnson.
Former President Barack Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, described the race between Vallas and Johnson as the battle between the “candidate of the Fraternal Order of Police” and the “candidate of the Chicago Teachers Union.” the Chicago Sun Times.
Axelrod described Vallas’ campaign as “brilliant” and “disciplined” thanks to his being “monomaniac” on violent crime.
“(Johnson) is the Chicago Teachers Union nominee and if elected, he will owe it to the Chicago Teachers Union. … The question is, do you want a mayor who is fully beholden to the union,’ Axelrod added in his interview.
Vallas’ rivals tried to paint him as a Republican thanks to his support from the city’s confrontational police union.
Last week, the same union hosted likely GOP presidential nominee Ron DeSantis at an event in Illinois, reports ABC Chicago.
“I completely agree with Governor Pritzker that there is simply no place in Chicago for a right-wing extremist like Ron DeSantis, and I am disappointed in the FOP leadership for inviting him to speak with officers,” Vallas said, distancing himself from the governor of Florida. .
Lightfoot had berated him for welcoming the support of the controversial police union leader, who defended the January 6 insurgents at the Capitol and equated Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate for city workers with the Holocaust.
The 2023 campaign has tested Democratic coverage of policing in the US, three years after widespread protests following the police killing of George Floyd and months after Republicans tried to oust Democrats on the issue in the 2022 midterm elections. club.
In 2021, there were more than 800 homicides in Chicago, the highest number in a quarter of a century. The homicide rate fell 14 percent in 2022, but remained almost 40 percent higher than in 2019.
Vallas’s campaign website claims the city has been “surrendered” to criminals, and he has vowed to hire more officers and expand community patrols, as part of a 14 point plan to cover crime listed on his website.
A TV ad targeting Lightfoot titled “Out of Control” saw the candidate refer to the incumbent’s leadership style as “combative.”
Paul Vallas. Crime and your safety is his top priority,” says the narrator in the TV spot.
In a recent interview, Vallas attributed the rising crime rate in Chicago to “the abandonment of a community-based policing strategy.”
Brandon Johnson, right, listens to homeless attorney Aleta “Englewood Barbie” Clark at a homeless camp under a major highway on the eve of the mayoral election
A recent Chicago Tribune story also revealed that Vallas’ Twitter account posted racist tweets and tweets mocking Lightfoot’s appearance and calling her masculine.
While Johnson’s first ad was titled “Better.”
Brandon Johnson has a plan to make Chicago safer, grow businesses in Chicago and create jobs. Brandon’s plan will improve public schools for all of our children. For mayor, Brandon Johnson is better for Chicago,” the narrator says.
Vallas’ focus on safety has led him to the top of most polls, though Lightfoot has attacked him for telling an interviewer in 2009 that he was “more of a Republican than a Democrat.”
A recent Chicago Tribune story also revealed that Vallas’ Twitter account liked racist tweets and tweets mocking Lightfoot’s appearance and calling her masculine.
Vallas denied that his comments were related to race and says his police union support comes from regular officers.
He also said he was not responsible for the tweets liked, which he called “abhorrent,” and suggested someone had improperly accessed his account.
At a mayoral forum in January, Vallas said all the problems in Chicago’s train system were due to “crime, crime, crime.” He also said the system was “facing a catastrophic financial crisis.”
At the same forum, Johnson attributed the problems with the train system to reliability and that a “more concerted” effort was needed to solve the problems on the transit network.
In a recent ad, Lightfoot accused Johnson of trying to “fire the police.” The ad cited a performance in 2020 in which he described the slogan as a “genuinely political goal” in the wake of the Floyd protests.
As a mayoral candidate, Johnson has responded by saying he wants to spend more resources on programs such as mental health, but has no plans to cut the police budget.
Rita DiPietro, who lives downtown, said she supported Lightfoot in 2019. But she voted for Vallas on Tuesday, saying she was impressed with his detailed strategy for addressing public safety.
“The candidates are all talking about what they would like to do,” she told the Associated Press. This man really has a plan. He knows how he’s going to do it.’
Lindsey Hegarty, a 30-year-old paralegal who lives on Chicago’s North Side, said she supported Johnson because “he seemed like the most forward-thinking candidate in policing, mental health,” and public transportation.
A graph showing the distribution of votes after Chicago’s mayoral election on Tuesday
At his victory celebration, Vallas noted 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 fight crime, he said that if elected, he would work to tackle public safety.
“We will have a safe Chicago. We will make Chicago the safest city in America,” Vallas said.
Johnson noted on Tuesday night that he was unlikely to make it to the second round given 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.”
The other candidates were businessman Willie Wilson, Chicago City Council members Sophia King and Roderick Sawyer, activist Ja’Mal Green and State Representative Kambium “Kam” Buckner.
Far from being an outlier, the country’s third-largest city is just the latest Democratic stronghold where public safety has become a major election issue.
In San Francisco, progressive district attorney Chelsea Boudin was impeached last year in a recall election fueled by frustration over public safety.
In Los Angeles, two Democrats running for mayor debated how to deal with rising crime rates and a spiraling homelessness crisis.
In New York City, voters elected Eric Adams mayor, elevating a former city police chief who promised to revamp the department and invest more in crime prevention.
And in Philadelphia, this year’s mayoral candidate is debating how to reduce gun violence.
