Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid on Tuesday night —and she’s blaming racism and sexism for the landslide loss; she faced eight other candidates in the race, but failed to make the runoff after finishing the election in third place.
“I am a black woman — let’s not forget,” Lightfoot, 60, told the New Yorker in a piece that ran Saturday. “Certain folks, frankly, don’t support us in leadership roles.”
“Regardless of tonight’s outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path,” Lightfoot said after voters resoundingly rejected her policies at the voting booth.
From The New York Post:
The Chicago Tribune called her loss a “political embarrassment” and argued that crime “skyrocketed” on her watch.
“Lightfoot campaigned for mayor in 2019 by arguing crime was too high, saying she wanted to make Chicago the ‘safest big city in the country,’” the Tribune said in its analysis of how she went from “political rock star to rock bottom.”
“But homicides, mostly from gun violence, spiked dramatically in 2020 and 2021 from 500 murders in 2019 to 776 and 804 in the next two years, respectively. Shootings and carjackings also skyrocketed.”
Violent crime in the city spiked by 40% since she promised during her inaugural address to end the “epidemic of gun violence that devastates families, shatters communities, holds children hostage to fear in their own homes,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) got it right in her tweet on Lightfoot’s loss:
Lori Lightfoot.
Crime doesn’t pay.— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 1, 2023
Lightfoot said ruining Chicago was the “honor of a lifetime.”
Serving as your mayor has been the honor of a lifetime, and I am so grateful to all of you who have stood beside me these last four years.
We’ve made significant progress building a safer, more equitable city. I thank each and every one of you for believing in me. pic.twitter.com/l33IGevNPC
— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) March 1, 2023
More over at The New York Post:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blames election loss on racism, gender https://t.co/vYbqBDbVSt pic.twitter.com/jXrG71tcyQ
— New York Post (@nypost) March 1, 2023