Lori Lightfoot’s campaign for mayor of Chicago falls short of the runoff.
Paul Vallas, a former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, and Brandon Johnson, a Cook County Commissioner, ultimately won the campaign. They will face off against each other in a runoff election on April 4, as no candidate obtained most of the votes. Lightfoot, a Democrat, was defeated in the race.
Voters from both major parties and those not affiliated with either were allowed to cast ballots in this campaign.
By 10:33 p.m. Eastern Time, 93 percent of the ballots had been counted, and the results showed that Vallas had received 33.9 percent of the vote, Johnson had received 20.3 percent, and Lightfoot had received 16.9 percent.
Lightfoot’s opponents have used Chicago’s rising crime rates as a central argument against her.
The number of killings in Chicago reached a 25-year high in 2021, surpassing even the most violent cities, such as New York and Los Angeles.
During her term, the mayor has been criticized for her destructive relationship with law enforcement, resulting in a considerable loss of police officers in recent years as crime has increased in the city.
Paul Vallas, CEO of Chicago Public Schools and director of the city budget, will face Brandon Johnson, a Cook County Board of Commissioners member, in a runoff election on April 4.
No one received more than 50% of the vote to declare victory.
Twitter users were quick to express their relief at the prospect of new leadership in Chicago following the mayor’s defeat. Many users said they were relieved that the city’s crime pandemic would soon be addressed.
In his blog post “The Lori Lightfoot Experiment Is Officially Over,” political analyst Gianno Caldwell, whose brother was murdered in Chicago last year, said that Lightfoot’s tenure as mayor was finished.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, commented that crime is not profitable in a statement calling out Lightfoot.
Rep. Vernon Jones of Georgia, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in November, remarked, “The mayor just got the FOOT!” after hearing the news. He also added that even liberals are weary of feeling unsafe, he said, continued by saying that other Democrat mayors should take note if the crime is spiraling out of control in their towns.
Light’s defeat makes him Chicago’s only incumbent mayor to fail in a reelection effort since Jane Byrne, the city’s first female mayor, failed in her Democratic primary in 1983.
Lightfoot, a political newcomer who in 2019 became America’s first black mayor of Chicago, ran for mayor on a platform of ending government corruption.
However, her reelection campaign’s morality was doubted when it was revealed that it had endeavored to send students to Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges in return for course credit.
The Chicago Sun-Times stated that she issued an apology, calling it a “poor mistake” by a young campaign worker.
Despite having some of the strictest gun regulations in the country, Lightfoot’s four-year term was marred by a prolonged strike by the teachers union, confrontations with the police union, and a sharp increase in violent homicide rates.
She claimed that she found it difficult to govern because of factors beyond her control.