(ConservativeSense.com) – The results of Tuesday night’s mayoral election are in and voters have ousted Mayor Lori Lightfoot, rejecting her and her plans for the city, with many critics citing crime as a significant reason.
Not only has crime been a major issue in Chicago for many years and only getting worse, but the demoralization of police who have to deal with the fallout also led to a mass exodus of officers to manage the problem.
Lightfoot’s reputation with police tanked after the death of George Floyd led to riots across the country in 2020. Police are quitting in record numbers and the city is having trouble replacing them, with an 11% decrease since 2018, and Lightfoot’s policies on crime are a major reason why. During her time in office, murders have been at the highest levels Chicago has seen in 25 years, surpassing New York City and Los Angeles.
As crime has gone up, Lightfoot’s reputation with the city’s police has taken a serious hit. Police are quitting the force faster than the city can replace them. There are currently just under 11,850 police officers, an 11 percent drop from 2018. One retired Chicago Police Department lieutenant said Lightfoot’s crime policies are a big reason why.
Of course, residents are just as fed up with crime as police departments. One resident, Diana Dejacimo, who was robbed at gunpoint last December in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, told “Fox & Friends First” that after the horrifying experience, she didn’t know a single person who went out to vote for Lightfoot.
Dejacimo said she believes “people have just had enough,” and that “regime change is the only way we’re going to fix this.” She called Lightfoot’s ousting a “loud and clear message that this woke agenda is not working” for the city.
The mayoral race will now head to a runoff election because no candidate received a 50% voting threshold, yet Lightfoot won’t be on the ballot for the next phase, coming in third place with barely 17% of the vote. Paul Vallas, Chicago Public Schools CEO, came in at 33.8%, and Cook County Board of Commissioners member Brandon Johnson at 20.3%.
Vallas and Johnson will now face off on April 4th for the runoff election.
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