Lori Lightfoot elected Chicago's first black female mayor

Lori Lightfoot.
(Image credit: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images)

Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosector, won Chicago's mayoral election on Tuesday, becoming the city's first black female mayor.

She defeated Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board president and chair of the Cook County Democratic Party. Lightfoot, 56, is the second woman to be elected mayor of Chicago, after Jane Byrne, who served one term from 1979 to 1983. This was Lightfoot's first run for office, and with her win, Chicago is now the largest city in the U.S. to ever elect an openly gay mayor.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.