The polling got it right…..
Attorney Lori Lightfoot defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in Tuesday’s election, making her Chicago’s first African-American female mayor, according to unofficial returns.
Lightfoot jumped out to an early lead over Preckwinkle, a longtime political power broker, and had what appeared to be an insurmountable lead.
Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor making her first run for elected office, had 74 percent to Preckwinkle’s 26 percent, with nearly 83 percent of precincts reporting, according to unofficial vote totals.
A disappointed but upbeat-sounding Preckwinkle stepped to the microphone at her election gathering and thanked those who supported her unsuccessful run in Tuesday’s historic mayoral election.
“This may not be the outcome we wanted, but while I may be disappointed, I’m not disheartened,” Preckwinkle said. “For one thing this is clearly an historic night.”
Not long ago, two African-American women in a runoff for mayor would have been unthinkable, she said…..
image….Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP – Getty Images
Lightfoot took all of the City’s 50 Wards. A complete sweep.
Pretty amazing result. The Chair of the Cook County Board and Cook County Democrat Party was trounced by an outsider and deservedly so.
The new Mayor will have a very tough job. I will be rooting for her.
She was ahead in the polling by double digits….
I believe Preckwinkle stopped her ads two weeks out….
Lightfoot has NO past political experience?
74-26 is still a pretty huge margin though, beyond what anyone expected. Turnout was very low though.
Lightfoot was a first time candidate. A couple weeks before the first round of voting, she was expected to maybe finish 6th out of 17. The Chicago Sun-Times endorsed her and hr campaign took off. She proved to be pretty good in debates and as someone who was always thought of as a bit dull, she got much better in coming across personally. As we have seen in other races around the country, people definitely are gravitating for something “different.”
Preckwinkle ran a terrible campaign too. She certainly ran to Lightfoot’s left and tried to portray her as basically a Republican. Nonetheless, Lightfoot won an across the board coalition of voters, everything from staunch left-wingers to whatever extent of Chicago contains conservatives.
A bunch of incumbents were defeated in Aldermanic runoffs. The Chicago City Council is now going to have something like five proud Socialists. Just another sign in where the energy among Democrats is these days.