Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) on Tuesday failed to secure enough votes to advance to the runoff on Tuesday, losing her bid for a second term in office, according to an Associated Press projection.
Lightfoot becomes the first Chicago mayor to lose a bid for reelection in 40 years, when former mayor Jane Byrne was ousted in 1983 after Chicago failed to clear the streets in a major snowstorm.
Lightfoot’s loss sets up former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas (D) and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson (D) for a head to head faceoff in the runoff election on April 4.
Lightfoot’s first term in office was marked by the coronavirus pandemic and a massive increase in crime.
“Lori has had her chance. Since Lori Lightfoot has been in office, it seems like crime has gotten worse,” 45-year-old Chicago resident Lonnell Jolly told the Associated Press.
In 2022, Lightfoot’s Chicago recorded 723 murders, a 95 percent increase in vehicle thefts, a 50 percent increase in theft, and ten percent increases from the previous year in burglary and robbery.
The crime wave has continued into 2023, as the first homicide of the year occurred just 90 minutes into the New Year. In addition, the first 22 days of 2023 saw a significant increase in crime, as Breitbart News reported:
Compared to the first 22 days of 2021, the major crime rate in Democrat-run Chicago is already up 97 percent this year, reports Wirepoints. Compared to those same 22 days last year, crime is up 61 percent.
…
In just 22 days, there have been 2,189 cars stolen. That’s nearly 100 car thefts per day.
Compared to the first 22 days of 2022, that’s a 165 percent jump. Compared to the first 22 days of 2019, that is a — not a typo — 349 percent increase.
Despite consistently polling in third place, Lightfoot was recently recorded dancing at a Lunar New Year parade in January.
@LoriLightfoot / Twitter
Vallas earned approximately 35 percent of the vote when he was projected to advance to the next stage. Johnson earned close to 20 percent of the vote, while Lightfoot came in third place at roughly 17 percent.
Vallas’s tough-on-crime campaign included calls for adding hundreds of police officers to patrol Chicago, the Associated Press detailed.
On the other hand, Johnson has aligned himself with radical defund the police movements, despite later backtracking his support for that position.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
