Lori Lightfoot Takes 1st Place In Mayor's Race, Heads To Runoff

CHICAGO, IL — There was a lighthearted mood at Lori Lightfoot's election night event Tuesday, even before the vote totals started arriving. Maybe it was all the children — some of whom, it turned out, worked on the campaign. Maybe it was the packed quarters, a River North shared workspace packed to its 300-person capacity, with an overflow crowd at a restaurant down the block.

But then the batches of vote totals began to roll in, with cheers rising from the assembled crowd every time the results were displayed on TVs in the corners of the room. From the start of the tally, their candidate was in first place.

Lightfoot topped a record-high 14 candidates in her first bid for elected office. The former federal prosecutor and head of the police board quit her appointed post last year to run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The first openly lesbian candidate for Chicago mayor, she will face Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the former Chicago Public Schools teacher who spent nearly two decades as an alderman representing Hyde Park and entered the race after Emanuel announced his retirement in September.

"Fourteen candidates was a lot, obviously, and voters had a lot of options, but I want to thank the voters of this great city for fighting through the noise and coming to a place where we brought in the light," Lightfoot said, calling for a continuing dialogue about a plan for Chicago's future inclusive of every neighborhood. Many had doubted, she said, that her campaign could make it to a runoff against better-known and better-funded opponents.

"The field was too crowded, there was no path for a new reformer without huge donors, being an elected official for ten thousand years amidst a pack of establishment figures. People said I that had some good ideas but that I couldn't win," she said. "And it's true that not every day that a little girl from a low-income family in a segregated steel town makes the runoff to be the next major of the third-largest city in the country."

Rob Fojtik, Lightfoot's chief of staff, said the campaign was "cautiously optimistic" heading into election day. Polling was encouraging, he said, with support for Lightfoot growing in each survey.

"On the ground, we had over 1,700 volunteer hours the last three or four days here, I don't think a lot of other campaigns can say that," Fojtik said. "So coming into it we felt a lot of momentum."

Perhaps foreshadowing a line of attack over the final five weeks before the runoff, Fojtik said voters will be presented with a clear choice between his candidate and Preckwinkle, who Lightfoot has dubbed — along with Gery Chico, Bill Daley and Susana Mendoza — one of the "Four Horseman of the Apocalypse."

"Now they're going to have two candidates and quite honestly a very stark contrast, someone who's been a machine boss for decades now — who maybe started her career as a progressive alderman but certainly has become the face of the machine — and Lori Lightfoot, who isn't tainted by that and actually wants to promote an open and transparent government, and not just the clout interests," Fojtik said.

The senior staffer pointed to recent reporting on a construction company and campaign donor that hired Preckwinkle's son and won millions in county contracts, as well as the county board chair's relationship with indicted senior Ald. Ed Burke, whose son Preckwinkle hired to work for the county after he left a previous job amid a misconduct investigation. "I mean, there's lots of things here that are going to be a very clear contrast for Lori," Fojtik said.

82% reporting and getting fired up for the live shot at Lori Lightfoot election night HQ #ChicagoElection pic.twitter.com/LzaCNVES4p
— Jonah Meadows (@J_Locke) February 27, 2019

In her election night address to supporters, Lightfoot recounted her experience growing up in Ohio, with an older brother in trouble with the law, and working multiple jobs to graduate the University of Michigan and eventually the University of Chicago law school. She said she saw familiar accounts of struggling families in every neighborhood as she traveled across the city as a candidate.

"The way I see it, I'm not here despite these hardships, despite the odds. I'm here because my personal and professional experiences have prepared me to lead with compassion, integrity and persistence. I am here because I know, firsthand, how it feels to work multiple jobs and still struggle to support a family," Lightfoot said. "I know how it feels to have a brother incarcerated for most of his adult life. I know the ripple effects on our entire family. I'm here because I know on a deeper personal level that we need change."

Lightfoot said the election has presented voters with a choice between remaining "resigned to the status quo" or committing to reform.

"It's about whether we will accept only investing in the downtown, while neighborhoods cry out for attention and resources, or whether we're committed to making sure that every neighborhood is safe. That every neighborhood school gets the investment it deserves. This election is about the crumbling machine of the past, once and for all, and demanding an independent, accountable City Hall that serves the people — not the political machine," Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot thanked several prominent supporters for what she described as their "courage to stand with our campaign against the machine," including U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, Cook County Clerk David Orr, Ald. Scott Waguespack, former state Rep. Litesa Wallace.

Waguespack, who introduced Lightfoot, said the former prosecutor was the most independent candidate and offered voters a chance to split from establishment candidates. He said he expected many new supporters coming into the campaign heading into the runoff.

"I think you're going to see very clear differences in terms of what the two candidates want to do in terms of the City Council, in terms of legislation, city finances," the 32nd Ward alderman and progressive caucus member said. "A lot of the messages might be the same, but I think people want to see the independence because they're tired of having the Daleys and the Emanuels running things on the fifth floor, and essentially running them into the ground, and they think that Lori is a viable option to pull us out of this mess."

After her address, Lightfoot turned over the microphone to a young supporter name Colin, who she described as her "wingman" during the campaign. He described his experience collecting signatures, attending mayor forums, working in the office.

"Thank you for letting me be a part of a campaign that has not only been a movement, it has also made history," he said.

Prior to singing a round of "Happy Birthday" to Lightfoot's daughter, who turned 11 on Wednesday, final remarks came from Dick Simpson, the former alderman, University of Illinois at Chicago political science professor and longtime anti-corruption crusader who Lightfoot credited with beginning "this movement" many years ago.

"So this is my 52nd year in being part of these campaigns, you go back to Eugene McCarthy and include Harold Washington and lots of other people over the years, but this may be the most important election of any of our lifetimes," said Simpson. "Because letting in the light really means choosing the future over choosing the past. It means that we've grown up. That we're ready for reform, and Paddy Bauler was wrong when he said we weren't, we're going to change the city with Lori Lightfoot."

Read more: Chicago To Elect Black Woman As Mayor For 1st Time