The Latest: Polls open in runoff election for Chicago mayor
Posted Apr 2, 2019 08:30:47 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHICAGO — The Latest on the Chicago mayoral election (all times local):
6:20 a.m.
Polls are open in Chicago where a runoff election is pitting a veteran politician against a former prosecutor in a race that will end with the city’s first black woman into the mayor’s office.
Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle were the top vote-getters in a 14-person general election in February. On Tuesday, one of the Democrats will succeed Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who didn’t seek re-election.
The 56-year-old Lightfoot has never held elected office, which she says fits the times in a city that has seen a scandal-ridden Democratic Party in charge for decades. The openly gay Lightfoot calls herself “a different kind of Democrat” who wants to end the old ways of doing things.
The 72-year-old Preckwinkle is a former school teacher who served on the Chicago City Council for 19 years before becoming Cook County Board president. She also heads the country’s Democratic Party.
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12 a.m.
Chicago will have its first black woman as mayor after voters choose between candidates who waged contentious campaigns that highlighted their contrasting political paths.
Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle were the top vote-getters in a 14-person general election in February to succeed Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who did not seek re-election. They have similar positions on many issues but divergent resumes.
The 56-year-old Lightfoot has never held elected office, which she says fits the times in a city that has seen a scandal-ridden Democratic Party in charge for decades.
The 72-year-old Preckwinkle is a former schoolteacher who served on the Chicago City Council for 19 years before becoming Cook County Board president.
The Associated Press
