By Jessica D’Onofrio, ABC 7 News
Five weeks from now, history will be made in Chicago and the city will have its first African-American female mayor.
Political outsider Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle were the top two vote-getters among 14 candidates running for mayor in Tuesday’s election. Neither received more than the 50 percent, so there will be a runoff on April 2.
Lightfoot captured more than 90,000 votes and Preckwinkle received more than 83,000. Bill Daley came in third.
Lightfoot billed herself as an “independent reformer” and a person who’s “never” held elected office. Lightfoot, who’s openly gay, took to the podium about 9:15 p.m., thanking her supporters and addressing her doubters.
“People said that I had some good ideas, but that I couldn’t win, and it’s true that not every day a little Black girl in a low-income family from a segregated steel town makes the runoff to be the next mayor of the third largest city in the country,” Lightfoot said.
An hour later, Preckwinkle addressed her supporters and took a swipe at Lightfoot.
“I know how gratifying it is when our efforts bend the arc of history a little closer to justice day by day,” Preckwinkle said. “While my opponent was taking multiple appointments in both the Daley and Emanuel administrations…I fought the power elites who have been trying to hold this city back for decades.”
Overnight, Lightfoot tweeted “Congratulations to @ToniForChicago on making it to the runoff election. No matter which one of us wins, Chicago will make history on April 2nd by electing the first Black woman mayor. It’s long overdue.”
Both candidates will hit the streets Wednesday morning to thank voters.
This article originally appeared in ABC 7 News.
