Mayor Lori Lightfoot urged Black residents to support her campaign for reelection or risk losing the seat and told people who don’t support her not to vote in a vivid display of the city’s racial politics Saturday at a Grand Crossing neighborhood church.
“Any vote coming from the South Side for somebody not named Lightfoot is a vote for Chuy Garcia or Paul Vallas,” Lightfoot said, naming the only Latino and white challengers in the race.
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“If you want them controlling your destiny, then stay home. Then don’t vote. But we’ve got to do better.”
Lightfoot is facing eight opponents in the February 28 election as she seeks a second term. Six of her rivals are Black, which has become a talking point for the mayor and her allies who worry about splitting the vote.
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The remarks came at a rally that frequented tapped into the historic disinvestment that South Side neighborhoods have suffered, with the mayor once again saying the “destiny” of Black Chicago is on the ballot.
Inside the brightly lit Greenwood Oasis church, 7621 S. Greenwood Ave. in the Grand Crossing, neighborhood, Lightfoot invoked religious themes and quoted Bible verses before telling the story of City Council propping up Eugene Sawyer to replace Mayor Harold Washington after he died in office — before “dropping him like a bad habit” and ceding control back to the white Democratic establishment, a version of history that has been disputed by other Black candidates and historians.
“We need the South Side to come like a mighty roar to the polls,” Lightfoot said. “We don’t need to be the Israelites wandering in the desert for 30 years. We need to get to the promised land right now, right here, and we won’t get there if you don’t vote.”
Lightfoot was joined by former U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, who supported her opponent in 2019 and suggested at a rally that more Black people would be killed by police if she got elected mayor. This time, however, Rush is backing Lightfoot and working to give her a boost with Black voters as she attempts to remake her political base.
In the first round of the 2019 mayoral race, Lightfoot emerged from a historic 14-candidate field with roughly 18% of the vote. Much of it came from white lakefront residents on the North Side who backed her over more established politicians.
Many of those voters are now disenchanted with Lightfoot, and she has been working vigorously to lock in support from the Black community.
Lightfoot has recently made a series of comments urging Black residents to coalesce behind her candidacy or risk losing City Hall. Lightfoot recently stood with a group of ministers who criticized other Black candidates for being in the race and potentially dividing up community support on the South and West sides.
Rush made the same argument at Saturday’s rally, leading residents in chanting, “keep the seat” and “down with the wannabes and up with Lori.”
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Chicago is a deeply segregated story with a long history of racially polarized politics, which Lightfoot has previously decried.
Vallas, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO who has been criticized for associating with the Fraternal Order of Police, recently told a Southwest Side crowd that his campaign is “about taking back our city,” a comment that rings of a dog whistle to some.
Garcia criticized the mayor’s comments on Twitter.
“This is disqualifying rhetoric for anyone hoping to lead a Chicago that is a multiracial and multiethnic city,” Garcia said. “We need unity not division.”
Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson’s campaign also responded.
“We can do better than this, y’all,” the campaign tweeted. “Just on principle, Chicago can do so much better.”
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gpratt@chicagotribune.com
ayin@chicagotribune.com
