Kim Foxx, the first Black person elected as Cook County State’s Attorney, will not seek reelection when her term is up in 2024.
Foxx revealed her plans to the City Club of Chicago during a rousing address on Tuesday.
“And so I am announcing today that at the conclusion of my term in November of 2024, I will be stepping down as states attorney. I will not be on next year’s ballot, by my choice,” she said.
And what an address it was for Foxx, who was elected as the Cook County State’s Attorney in 2016 and is serving her second term.
As the kids would say, Foxx had time, about 40 minutes worth. She especially had time for her critics and detractors. Not too many words were minced.
Foxx Fires Back at Critics
Foxx fired back at the criticism that her reform approach to criminal justice was “soft” on actual offenders.
That perception came to light in 2021 when she clashed with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who blasted her decision not to charge five men in a gang-related shootout.
Nevertheless, she defended her record in her address, citing that violent crime decreased in her first three years in office. And for those who attributed the spike in crime in 2020 to her office’s policies rather than a “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” she had words for them too.
“To suggest that this administration is somehow responsible for a rise in violent crime is disingenuous at best and a lie,” she said.
Foxx also touted the advances made under her administration, such as reforming marijuana sentencing and hiring a Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer.
“We had the first ever chief equity and inclusion officer here at the Cook County State’s Attorney office back in 2017, before the murder of George Floyd,” she said, “before it became in vogue to say that we’re talking about diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Foxx also touted that her office was the first in the nation to hire a Chief Data Officer to promote data transparency.
The Jussie Smollett Debacle
Foxx also took time to tackle the elephant in the room regarding her tenure: her handling of the 2019 Jussie Smollett case.
Smollett, whom she called a D-List actor in her Tuesday address, infamously staged a hate crime hoax in Chicago.
Smollett claimed he was physically and verbally assaulted outside his apartment building. The actor told police that his attackers hit him in the face, poured a bleach-like substance on him, placed a rope around his neck and spat homophobic and racist slurs against him.
It emerged later that Smollett paid two brothers who were his “attackers” and staged the whole thing. The national media relentlessly covered the “incident” and subsequent hoax, which became a significant embarrassment for the city and local law enforcement.
Foxx recused herself from the case, and her office moved to drop charges of disorderly conduct against Smollett for fabricating his story. However, a special prosecutor eventually reinstated those charges, concluding that Foxx’s office demonstrated a “major failure” of operations in handling the case, among other findings.
Yet, Foxx fired back at the media for focusing on the Smollett ordeal and not enough on her office’s accomplishments, especially in overturning the sentences of wrongfully imprisoned people. She called on five people her office has helped during her tenure.
“Probably when I leave this earth, my epitaph will mention Jussie Smollett, and it makes me mad,” she said.
For Foxx, Its Mission Accomplished
Before she announced her decision not to seek reelection, Foxx said she didn’t intend to be a career politician, preferring instead to be in the background.
Her term as State’s Attorney ends on December 1, 2024, about 19 months away.
Yet, in her address to the City Club, she announced that she had already accomplished what she set out to do, touching on her early life growing up in Cabrini-Green and surviving sexual assault.
“I knew that I had a mission and an agenda that I wanted to achieve, which was fairness, justice and equity,” she said, “and that kids who lived in neighborhoods just like mine, could live to see another day and not just live, but they could be lawyers and policymakers in a city that they call home.”
“And I feel that I have done that,” she said.
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