Lori Lightwood elected first black female mayor of Chicago

Chicago became the largest American city ever to elect a black woman as its mayor as voters on Tuesday chose Lori Lightfoot, a former prosecutor, to replace Rahm Emanuel. When she takes office in May, Lightfoot also will be the city’s first openly gay mayor.

She fought off competition from 13 other candidates and dominated the final run-off election with more than 74% when the vote was called.

Lightfoot, who has never held elective office, easily won the race, overwhelming a better-known, longtime politician and turning her outsider status into an asset in a city with a history of corruption and insider dealings.

Lightfoot, 56, beat Toni Preckwinkle, a former alderman who is president of the Cook County Board and who had for years been viewed as a highly formidable candidate for mayor.

"Out there tonight a lot of little girls and boys are watching. They're watching us. And they're seeing the beginning of something, well, a little bit different," she told a crowd celebrating her victory on Wednesday night.

National advocates for gay rights celebrated. Lightfoot’s win. “Now young queer women and women of color can see themselves reflected in a position of major political leadership,” said Stephanie Sandberg, executive director of LPAC, an organization that works to build the political power of L.G.B.T.Q. women.

Chicago, a city of 2.7 million residents, is wrestling with dueling realities: Tech jobs and convention business have poured into its shimmering downtown while public schools have been shuttered on the South and West Sides, and thousands of black residents have moved away. Emanuel’s administration made strides to shore up the city’s fiscal woes but residents have complained about mounting taxes and fees. Chicago’s new mayor still must come up with an additional $1 billion in the next four years to continue pulling the city out of a pension crisis.

Gun crime and policing were also high on the agenda in a city plagued by high levels of gang violence and murder.

Lightfoot joins a growing rank of record breakers being elected to high-profile mayoral office across the country.

Seven other US cities including Atlanta, New Orleans, and San Francisco are now also led by black women.