February 28(Reuters)- Chicago’s incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid on Tuesday, with vote totals showing that two of her rivals will face each other in an April runoff ballot. Paul Vallas, the former public schools chief in Chicago and Philadelphia who ran unsuccessfully for the Chicago Mayoral election in 2019, secured the top spot, taking 34.9% of the vote with 91% of precincts reporting, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Brandon Johnson, a Cook Country commissioner and an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union secured the other spot in the Chicago Mayoral election race, taking 20.2% of the votes. Lightfoot had 16.4% of the vote outstanding in making up the ground between her Johnson. Polls showed public safety is by far the top concern among residents of the third-largest U.S. city.
Lori Lightfoot Won’t Return In The Chicago Mayoral Election
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot won’t return for a second term in office during this Chicago Mayoral Election as Paul Vallas, a long-time public schools chief, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will advance to an April runoff election. No candidate is on course to top 50% in Tuesday‘s election, the ballot will move on to the April 4 runoff.
Lightfoot, the first Black woman, and first publicly 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 reform promising a break from the corruption and clubby governance that had long marked Chicago politics.
But years of contentious brawls over policing, teacher pay 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.