CHICAGO _ The Associated Press has declared attorney Lori Lightfoot the winner of Chicago's mayoral election, making her the city's first African American female mayor.
Lightfoot jumped out to an early lead over Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, a longtime political power broker.
Weeks of intense campaigning between Preckwinkle and Lightfoot, former president of the Chicago Police Board, culminated when the polls closed at 7 p.m. CDT. Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor making her first run for elected office, had 74 percent to Preckwinkle's 25 percent, with 1,464 of 2,069 precincts reporting, according to unofficial vote totals.
The two candidates emerged from a record field of 14 candidates in the Feb. 26 first-round election for the chance to become Chicago's 56th mayor.
Chicago would become the largest U.S. city ever to elect an openly gay mayor.
The city has not elected an African American mayor since Harold Washington won re-election in 1987 before dying in office later that year. The city also only has elected one woman as mayor, Jane Byrne, who held the office for one term from 1979 until 1983.
Lightfoot, 56, and Preckwinkle, 72, repeatedly have acknowledged the historic nature of the campaign.
"I think about the children, and the city they will grow up in and what it will mean for young boys and girls to see leaders who look like them in the mayor's office. You know what they say, 'You cannot be what you cannot see,'" Preckwinkle, also the Cook County Democratic Party chair, said during a rally before hundreds of African American voters at the Harold Washington Cultural Center last month. "I hope this election tells them that no dream is too big or challenge too great. And this is truly a historic moment. Not long ago, the idea that two African American women would be vying for this spot would have been considered impossible."
In a recent speech to a few hundred black voters at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's Kenwood headquarters, Lightfoot noted the amount of time since Chicago elected Washington.
"We have the opportunity to bring all parts of our city together, to forge a new direction for our city that welcomes everyone to the table," she said.
The campaign boiled down to change versus experience.
Lightfoot has touted herself as a change agent at a time when City Hall is the focus of a federal public corruption investigation. Preckwinkle, meanwhile, has emphasized her nearly three decades of experience in government and her background as first a teacher then a Chicago alderman.
Chicago has 10 percent more registered voters now than it did in 2015 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel defeated challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, thanks to an uptick in voter interest ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
In February, 35 percent of registered voters cast ballots, up slightly from 34 percent in 2015. The difference in raw votes was larger, with 560,701 casting ballots this year compared with 483,700 in 2015.
City election officials reported that early voting ahead of Tuesday's runoff was down slightly from five weeks ago. In the February election, 125,000 voters cast early ballots, while this time around the final number was 122,829. The final rush to vote also dropped off, with 25,703 voting early on the final Monday before the election five weeks ago compared with 17,850 this time.
