Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will seek a second term; will announce re-election bid to supporters tonight

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot will ask voters to send her back to City Hall for a second term as head of the nation’s third-largest city, her campaign told donors and supporters ahead of a Tuesday night fundraiser.

The mayor is expected to announce her re-election campaign to supporters in River North on Tuesday, ahead of a planned series of events throughout the city on Wednesday. Lightfoot’s announcement she will seek re-election in the 2023 mayoral race will come as no surprise. Despite wishful thinking by some Lightfoot critics that she would bow out of the race, the first-term mayor has long been setting up to defend her record and seek re-election.

Invitations by Lightfoot staffers to donors and supporters, obtained by the Tribune, have made clear Tuesday’s event in River North is her campaign launch.

The mayor currently faces five challengers, all of whom have raised questions about high crime and criticized her leadership as being unnecessarily divisive. So far, her opponents include South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer, son of a former mayor; former Chicago Public School CEO Paul Vallas; Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner; Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez; and businessman Willie Wilson.

During more than three years in office, Lightfoot has faced spikes in crime, has not run as transparent an administration as promised and engaged in constant fights with unions representing teachers and police — all while struggling to forge good relationships with politicians or leaders in the city’s business community.

Her polling has struggled in recent months, particularly with white and Latino voters, but the tough and combative mayor can’t be dismissed.

Lightfoot has quietly built a strong relationship with several key labor leaders, who hail her progressive record on union issues like the fair workweek ordinance and a $15 minimum wage. Incumbency in any form also has power. As mayor, Lightfoot has earmarked roughly $3 billion in federal funds for city projects and she’s launched a series of programs aimed at reversing one of the biggest criticisms of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure — disinvestment in Chicago’s neighborhoods, especially on its South and West sides.

Lightfoot also can argue she deserves more time to finish the job after having faced the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and some of the city’s most significant civil unrest since the 1960s.

Whoever becomes Chicago mayor in 2023 will take responsibility for a city with deep financial challenges, endemic gun violence and a troubling history of segregation that continues to exist and contribute to crime and inequity.

The next mayor will also navigate major changes in Chicago Public Schools, which will transition to an independent elected school board over the coming years. Lightfoot campaigned in favor of an elected school board but unsuccessfully tried to block a state law creating a 21-member body to oversee Chicago schools.