Chicago Mayor Lightfoot Facing Uphill Reelection Challenge

Controversial Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is saying that with nine people on the ballot for her seat, it will be "impossible not to have a runoff," but it appears highly possible that she won't reach that point in her reelection bid, considering her dwindling ratings and strong challenges from at least three opponents in the race.

Chicago voters are speaking out against Lightfoot, a Democrat wrapping up her first term in office, through polls such as a recent survey from The Chicago Sun-Times, where voters said they are fed up with gun violence and troubled police relations and want a candidate who can fix both issues — and they don't think that person is Lightfoot, reports NBC News.

In Chicago, the top two finishers in a municipal election face off in a runoff election in April, if no candidate with a clear majority wins.

With the Feb. 28 election quickly approaching, Lightfoot came in third behind Democrat challengers Paul Vallas and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia in a recent poll, reports ABC News, and Garcia claimed in an interview that the race is "looking harder and harder for her. It's a hell of a front to be fighting on, from her vantage point."

Another Sun-Times poll shows Lightfoot is in a statistical dead heat with Vallas and Garcia, but also showing that 71% of the respondents think Chicago is on the wrong track, three out of five voters disapprove of Lightfoot's job performance, and more than half have an unfavorable opinion of her.

But Lightfoot told NBC News that she loves "people thinking of me as the underdog. I've been an underdog my whole life. And I've always proven people wrong so I'm OK in that lane."

But Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO, has scored a key endorsement from the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, and Garcia in 2015 forced then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff. Garcia lost that race but then was elected to Congress.

Lightfoot is also facing a challenge from Brandon Johnson. He is a county commissioner and has the endorsement from the Chicago Teachers Union, a group at odds for some time with Lightfoot.

The union went on strike while Lightfoot was in office. She has also had arguments with her fellow aldermen and Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker and was sued in 2021 by a media organization in 2021 after she announced she'd only grant interviews with journalists of color concerning her halfway point in office.

But Garcia and Vallas have also had some stumbles in recent weeks, with Garcia facing questions about donations he's gotten from FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, and Vallas over his backing from Chicago's police union, considering Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican and potential 2024 presidential candidate, is scheduled to talk with the union Monday.

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