That's particularly true in the first round of voting, when incumbents generally enjoy an advantage.īut this election is very different, said Constance Mixon, a lifelong Chicago resident and political science professor at Elmhurst University. If Lightfoot loses on Tuesday, she would be one of the few big-city mayors in recent history to lose their reelection bid. Brandon Johnson is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, a group that has tangled with Lightfoot, including during an 11-day teachers strike in her first year in office. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to a runoff in 2015.

Lightfoot's top rivals include Paul Vallas, who has run as the law-and-order candidate with support from the city's police union and promises to put hundreds more officers on the streets, and U.S.

I believe that I’m still the right person and I think the voters will validate that, but we’ve been through a lot,” Lightfoot said after a rally on the city's west side during the final days before the election. “The world is very different than it was four years ago. She also notes that the city has navigated unprecedented challenges such as the pandemic and its economic and public safety fallout to protests over policing. Lightfoot has touted her record of investing in neighborhoods and supporting workers, such as by increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. With none of the nine candidates likely to receive over 50% of the vote, the race is expected to move to an April runoff between the top two vote-getters. But Lightfoot, a former prosecutor and head of a city police review board, now faces serious challenges from multiple candidates, who have hammered her over crime that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and a leadership style they say is unnecessarily combative.

city, and only the second woman to hold the office. Lightfoot in 2019 became the first Black woman and first openly gay mayor of the third-largest U.S. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is fighting for reelection Tuesday after a history-making but tumultuous four years in office and a bruising campaign threaten to make her the city's first one-term mayor in decades.

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