Even liberal Democrats can reach a breaking point. That’s what Chicago’s soon-to-be ex-Mayor Lori Lightfoot discovered when she lost her Democratic mayoral primary to Paul Vallas. Not only did she lose the primary, she came in third in field of nine candidates.
Lightfoot, who touted being the first black woman and openly gay mayor of Chicago, can now add another first to her resume. She is the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose a re-election bid earning just 17.1 percent of the vote.
She came in behind Vallas who earned 33.8 percent of the vote. He made public safety his primary campaign issue and had the backing of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police. Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson earned 20.3 percent of the vote. Because neither candidate earned 50 percent of the vote, they were head to run-off election on Apr. 4.
The major issue in the campaign was public safety, and it dogged Lightfoot. “Throughout her term, she has been criticized for her soft-on-crime approach, which has led to massive increases in violence in the city, which is up 52 percent from last year and more than 100 percent from 2021,” according to the UK Daily Mail.
It is something that Lightfoot refused to acknowledge. In she concession speech, she said she was “grateful that we worked together to remove a record number of guns off our streets, reduce homicides and started making real progress on public safety.”
Hopefully, this was just political-speak because if she believes it, it shows why she needed to be voted out. She is out of touch with her constituents. She may think progress was made against crime, but it was obvious to people who had to live with the rising incidents of crime in the city that Lightfoot’s belief was a delusion. They chose to give someone who wasn’t living in a fantasy world a chance to make improvements.
When asked if she had been treated unfairly, Lightfoot, still showing she was out of touch with voters, said, “I’m a Black woman in America. Of course.”
Vallas, on the other hand, said, “I want to thank the voters of Chicago for making this campaign about the issues and nothing but the issues.”
He focused on the issues that voters wanted to hear about. Residents want something done to bring crime under control, and if the people they expect to do this (the police) are backing Vallas, then they are willing to give Vallas and the police a chance to prove they can protect the public.
Now with the crowded field down to two candidates, this month will give them both a chance reach more voters with their message. Voters can consider their positions on how each candidate feels Chicago can be made safer.
Whoever wins the run-off Democratic primary will for all intents and purposes be the next mayor in the heavily Democrat city. Whether that is Vallas or Johnson, the next mayor will need to show progress on the war against crime or become the first mayor since Lightfoot to fail in a re-election bid.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
More proof of institutional racism bias and corruption. She doesn’t pay enough to the voting machine programmers.
The city of Chicago is better without this twit. Perhaps the voters saw the damage being done to them in the name of “wokeness” which is actually being brain dead.. what a resume..
LIGHTFOOT WAS ELECTED ONLY due to the Color of her Skin, her gender, her LGBTQ+ Status, turning a DREAM into a NIGHTMARE, and NOT the Content of her Qualifications!
Now she’s BLAMING her loss on the Color of her Skin, her Gender, her LGBTQ+ Status and NOT on her Radical ideas, her Lack of a Fight against Crime, and her Lack of Qualifications!
STOP ELECTING PEOPLE LIKE THIS! My fear is there will soon be another like her rising to President!
Is everyone’s comment in moderation first? What did I put in my above comment that warranted it like ALL of my comments.
Good point.
The hideous creature knows that “check-the-box” qualifications were what got her in.
Then like some idiot with Tourette’s Syndrome, she ticks uncontrollably back to the same “qualifications” to blame others for NOT voting for her gross incompetence.
Poor Hillary. That rabid bitch only got to blame misogyny on her loss. ($50 says Hillary comes out as a gay muslim if she runs again.)
Democrat Mayor Daley did more for Chicago than this cretin ever did while opposing the kind of progressive drivel current then and now. This woman’s a joke, but nobody’s laughing.
Yea, no one is laughing because this fool has done so much damage to her fellow Chicagoans. That the rest of the nation has had to put up with seeing what an imbecile Lightfoot was. So glad she is being sent down the road. Now she can spend all her time contemplating the fact that she is a V-I-C-T-I-M due to her skin color, and sexual orientation–never even contemplating that the voters were sick and tired of her BS decisions. Thank you Chicago for “takin’ out the trash!” we love you for this decision.
Don”t say “sent down the road” It can too easily be distorted into “sold down the river.”
God. She can crawl back to the snake den she came from.
Lightfoot’s claim that she lost due to racism is risible considering that she won the 2019 mayoralty race by a landslide. It’s doubtful that she will ever accept that her defeat was the result of her miserable performance as mayor. Furthermore, there was only one white candidate running in the 2023 Democrat primary – Vallas. There were at least six others in contention, all but one being black; that one being Hispanic. So much for the claim that blacks are being marginalized. through “systemic racism,” whatever that is.
And I heard her exclaim as she slithered out of sight,
“Systemic racism was the reason for my plight”.
Someone should ask Lightfoot if she knows that Edith S. Sampson, of blessed memory, was electedcan associate judge of the municipal court of Chicago in 1962.