Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to seek second term, officially announces re-election bid – NBC Chicago

After hinting for months in interviews and at public events that she plans to run for a second term, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot officially announced her candidacy on Tuesday to run for mayor again in 2023. .

Lightfoot was elected in 2019 and promised that with the possibility of another term as mayor, she would work to make the city “safer, fairer and more equitable for everyone”.

“I don’t look or sound like any other mayor we’ve ever had before, and I had to fight to get a seat at the table. And, like so many others in our city, I had to fight to make my voice heard,” Lightfoot said in a video posted Tuesday.

“That’s why I will never give up fighting every day to turn your voice into action,” she continued.

The announcement was accompanied by a campaign video posted Monday on YouTube.

Earlier on Tuesday, sources told NBC 5 political reporter Mary Ann Ahern that Lightfoot was set to announce his 2023 re-election campaign at a private event for donors and close allies in Chicago’s River North neighborhood on Tuesday. , followed by a public event on Wednesday.

Three years ago, Lightfoot made history by becoming Chicago’s first black, female, and openly gay mayor. She also scored a landslide victory in all 50 wards against her opponent, Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle.

During her tenure, Lightfoot has been criticized by a number of groups, ranging from the Chicago Teachers Union in 2019 for her handling of the teachers’ strike that year, to the ACLU in 2022 over her Millennium curfew. Park for unaccompanied minors.

Currently, six other candidates have announced their candidacy for mayor in 2023: Illinois Representative Kam Buckner, Police Officer Frederick Collins, Ald. Ray Lopez, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, and Chicago businessman and philanthropist Willie Wilson.

Ten other candidates, including Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara and CTU President Jesse Sharkey, are also considering running, sources told Ahern.