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“I’ve called Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas to congratulate them on their victories in advancing,” Lightfoot told supporters at the Carpenter’s Local 1 Hall. “We were fierce competitors. … But I will be reading and praying for our next mayor to deliver for the people for years to come.”
Two runoff competitors could hardly be more different among Lightfoot’s leading challengers.
Vallas, who is white, ran to the right of Lightfoot and has focused primarily on public safety. He won the endorsement of Chicago’s conservative Fraternal Order of Police and faced accusations from his rivals of being a Republican despite declaring himself a Democrat.
And although Johnson, a Black progressive with the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union, doesn’t use “defund the police” rhetoric, he has argued for police resources to be redirected to the city’s social service agencies.
None of the nine candidates on the ballot came close to securing the 50 percent needed to win the nonpartisan election outright Tuesday.
“I haven’t been this happy since my son returned from Afghanistan,” Vallas, who was projected to make the runoff less than 45 minutes after polls closed on Election Day, told supporters at a swanky West Loop venue called City Hall that quickly filled with hundreds of supporters.
He added: “We will make Chicago the safest city in America. … Public safety is the overriding issue, but we will not have true public safety in this city until the schools become part of the public safety solution.”
Lightfoot took the stage to concede less than two hours after the polls closed.
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