Chicago mayoral election: Lori Lightfoot elected city’s first black, openly gay female mayor
Chicago became the largest US city ever to elect a black woman as its mayor as voters on Tuesday chose Lori Lightfoot, a former prosecutor, to replace Rahm Emanuel.
When she takes office in May, Ms Lightfoot also will be the city’s first openly gay mayor.
Ms Lightfoot, 56, who has never held elective office, easily won the race, overwhelming a better-known, longtime politician and turning her outsider status into an asset in a city with a history of corruption and insider dealings.
She beat Toni Preckwinkle, a former alderman who is president of the Cook County Board and who had for years been viewed as a highly formidable candidate for mayor.
For Chicago, Ms Lightfoot’s win signalled a notable shift in the mood of voters and a rejection of an entrenched political culture that has more often rewarded insiders and dismissed unknowns.
For many voters, the notion that someone with no political ties might become mayor of Chicago seemed an eye-opening counterpoint to a decades-old, often-repeated mantra about this city’s political order: “we don’t want nobody nobody sent”.
As Ms Lightfoot took the stage in a downtown ballroom Tuesday night, she acknowledged the unlikeliness of her resounding victory, in which she appeared to win all 50 of Chicago’s wards.
“We were up against powerful interests, a powerful machine and a powerful mayor,” she said. “Nobody gave us much of a chance.”
For some of Ms Lightfoot’s supporters, the significance of her victory was monumental, going beyond a single candidate or city.
“Look, nothing personal, but it’s not the good old boys club anymore,” said Kimberly Smith, 40, who was born and raised on the South Side and said she thought the election marked a turning point in Chicago politics. “I feel empowered.”
National advocates for gay rights celebrated Ms Lightfoot’s win.
“Now young queer women and women of colour can see themselves reflected in a position of major political leadership,” said Stephanie Sandberg, executive director of LPAC, an organisation that works to build the political power of LGBT+ women.
Ms Lightfoot is a lawyer who has served in appointed positions, including as head of the Chicago Police Board and as a leader of a task force that issued a scathing report on relations between the Chicago police and black residents, but she was not widely known around the city until recent months.
The New York Times
