JUST IN: Lori Lightfoot Out as Chicago Mayor

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) has lost her re-election bid.

Lightfoot has an abysmal record as mayor of the “Windy City” and she performed just as poorly at the polls Tuesday.

She failed to finish as one of the top-2 vote-getters and will not advance to the final round of voting in April.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot projected to lose her reelection bid.

Lightfoot failed to be one of the top-2 vote-getters to advance to the final round of voting in April.

— DailyNoah.com (@DailyNoahNews) March 1, 2023

As a result, there will be a runoff election between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson on April 4th.

BREAKING NEWS🚨LORI LIGHTFOOT OUT IN CHICAGO as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Loses Re-Election bid.. pic.twitter.com/euqZAldTW7

— Matt Couch (@RealMattCouch) March 1, 2023

At the time of writing, Vallas secured 34.1% of the vote and Johnson finished second with 20.3%.

Lightfoot finished third with 16.8%.

BREAKING: Lori Lightfoot has lost re-election. Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will advance to the April 4 runoff in the Chicago Mayoral race.

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) March 1, 2023

Lightfoot conceded defeat.

WATCH:

JUST IN: Lori Lightfoot concedes in Chicago mayoral election.

Chicago just became a better place.pic.twitter.com/5mUZ5p99i4

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 1, 2023

Paul Vallas made public safety a critical part of his campaign, while Johnson is backed by the Chicago Teachers Union.

AP reported:

Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson will meet in a runoff to be the next mayor of Chicago after voters on Tuesday denied incumbent Lori Lightfoot a second term, issuing a rebuke to a leader who made history as head of the nation’s third-largest city.

Vallas, a former schools CEO backed by the police union, and Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, advanced to the April 4 runoff after none of the nine candidates was able to secure over 50% of the vote to win outright.

Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first openly gay person to lead the city, won her first term in 2019 after promising to end decades of corruption and backroom dealing at City Hall. But opponents blamed Lightfoot for an increase in crime and criticized her as being a divisive, overly contentious leader.

She is the first elected Chicago mayor to lose a reelection bid since 1983, when Jane Byrne, the city’s first female mayor, lost her Democratic primary.

Although Vallas is a Democrat, opponents have accused him of being a Republican.

Meanwhile, Johnson leans further left out of the two April candidates.

Paul Vallas, a Democrat running for mayor of Chicago with a conservative platform on crime and education, advanced on Tuesday to an April runoff, The Associated Press said, but his opponent remained unclear as ballots continued to be counted.https://t.co/Mo4JUWTUlQ

— Esha Ray (@ByEshaRay) March 1, 2023

From Politico:

Vallas ran to the right of Lightfoot and has focused primarily on public safety. He won the endorsement of Chicago’s conservative Fraternal Order of Police and faced accusations from his rivals of being a Republican despite declaring himself a Democrat.

And although Johnson, a progressive with the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union, doesn’t use “defund the police” rhetoric, he has argued for police resources to be redirected to the city’s social service agencies.

None of the nine candidates on the ballot came close to securing the 50 percent needed to win the nonpartisan election outright Tuesday.

“I haven’t been this happy since my son returned from Afghanistan,” Vallas, who was projected to make the runoff less than 45 minutes after polls closed on Election Day, told supporters at an event space called City Hall.