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Chicago voters will weigh in Tuesday on the direction of the Democratic Party, choosing between progressive Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson and moderate former city schools chief Paul Vallas in the mayoral runoff.
In a contest dominated by contrasting visions over crime and policing, the outcome could offer a window into how voters’ views have evolved in one of the nation’s largest cities in the four years since they elected a reformer, outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whom they are now replacing after she failed to advance to the runoff.
It’s not clear whether results will be known Tuesday night. Chicago counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, and the number of ballots left to arrive and be counted could be larger than the winning margin on election night, if the race is as close as many strategists and political observers in the city expect.
Vallas and Johnson are competing to replace Lightfoot, whose bid for a second term ended after she finished third in the nine-candidate February 28 first round.
Lightfoot had sparred with two of the most powerful forces in this year’s mayor’s race: the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Vallas, and the Chicago Teachers Union, which backed Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer.
The clash between those two unions is part of a larger battle over how the city handled the Covid-19 pandemic – a period during which violent crime increased and schools were shut down.
