On April 2nd, the Windy City will elect its first Black woman as mayor.
No matter who wins the runoff election, the next mayor of Chicago will be an African-American woman for the first time in the city’s history.
Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle moved forward to the runoff election Tuesday night after Lightfoot brought in 17.5% of the vote and Preckwinkle took 16% with 95 percent of precincts reporting as of 11 p.m. CST, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
Bill Daley, son of one mayor and brother of another, conceded after coming in third place with only 14.8% of the vote. Willie Wilson was a distant fourth at about 10 percent.
The results were not official as of Tuesday night, as vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day may not be be counted until March 12 according to election law.
A victory by either woman would be historic in more ways than one. Both in the running to be Chicago’s first black female mayor, but Lightfoot would also be the city’s first openly-LGBTQ mayor, while Preckwinkle would be the first mayor to sit in the Cook County Democratic Party chair since Richard J. Daley.
