2019 Chicago mayoral election facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
2019 Chicago mayoral election

← 2015 February 26 and April 2, 2019 2023 →
Turnout	35.32% 5.78 pp (first round) 31.28% 4.04 pp (second round)
Candidate Lori Lightfoot Toni Preckwinkle Bill Daley First-round vote 97,330 88,998 82,019 First-round percentage 17.54% 16.04% 14.78% Second-round vote 364,965 130,327 Second-round percentage 73.69% 26.31%   Candidate Willie Wilson Susana Mendoza Amara Enyia First-round vote 58,831 50,199 44,372 First-round percentage 10.60% 9.05% 8.00%   Candidate Jerry Joyce Gery Chico Paul Vallas First-round vote 40,014 34,420 30,154 First-round percentage 7.21% 6.20% 5.44%
Lightfoot won all 50 wards in the runoff      84–88%      79–84%      74–79%      69–74%      64–69%      59–64%      54-59%
Mayor before election Rahm Emanuel Elected Mayor Lori Lightfoot

The 2019 election for Mayor of Chicago happened in two parts. The first vote was on February 26, 2019. No candidate won more than half of the votes. So, a second vote, called a runoff election, was held on April 2, 2019.

The mayor at the time, Rahm Emanuel, could have run for a third term. There are no limits on how many times someone can be Mayor of Chicago. However, he decided not to run again on September 4, 2018.

Emanuel was first elected mayor in 2011. He won with 55.19% of the votes. He was re-elected in 2015. In that election, he also won the runoff with 55.7% of the votes.

A record number of people ran for mayor in 2019. There were fourteen candidates on the ballot.

In the first round, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle received the most votes. They then moved on to the runoff election. Lori Lightfoot won the runoff election by a lot, which is called a landslide. She became the first African-American woman to be Mayor of Chicago. Lightfoot won in all fifty areas, or wards, of the city.

Candidates for Mayor

This section lists the people who ran for Mayor of Chicago in 2019.

Candidates in the Runoff Election

These two candidates received the most votes in the first round. They then competed in the second round, the runoff election, on April 2.

Name	Experience
Lori Lightfoot	Former President of the Chicago Police Board (2015–2018)
Toni Preckwinkle	President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners since 2010 Former Alderman from the 4th Ward (1991–2010)

Candidates Eliminated in the First Round

These candidates did not get enough votes in the first round. So, they did not move on to the runoff election.

Name	Experience
Gery Chico	Chair of the Illinois State Board of Education (2011–2015)
William M. Daley	White House Chief of Staff (2011–2012) United States Secretary of Commerce (1997–2000)
Amara Enyia	Director of the Austin Chamber of Commerce
Robert Fioretti	Former Alderman from the 2nd Ward (2007–2015)
La Shawn Ford	Member of the Illinois House of Representatives since 2007
Neal Sáles-Griffin	CEO of CodeNow
Jerry Joyce	Former Assistant States Attorney
John Kozlar	Candidate for Alderman from the 11th Ward in 2011 and 2015
Garry McCarthy	Former Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (2011–2015)
Susana Mendoza	Illinois Comptroller since 2016 City Clerk of Chicago (2011–2016) Member of the Illinois House of Representatives (2001–2011)
Paul Vallas	Former Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools (1995–2001)
Willie Wilson	Businessman Owner of Omar Medical Supplies

Other Candidates

Some people planned to run but either withdrew or were not approved to be on the ballot.

• Dorothy A. Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County since 2000 (Rejected)
• Rahm Emanuel, the current Mayor. He decided not to run on September 4, 2018 (Withdrew).
• Ja'Mal Green, Executive director of the Majostee Allstars Community Center. He withdrew on December 31, 2018 (Withdrew).
• John Kass, a newspaper writer for the Chicago Tribune. He withdrew on September 24, 2018 (Withdrew).
• Troy LaRaviere, President of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. He withdrew on November 13, 2018 (Withdrew).

Images for kids

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  Mayoral candidates at a meeting in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood in December 2018.