Polls in Chicago have closed and now it's up to the tabulators and election workers to count the votes and determine who Windy City residents chose to lead America's third largest city for the next four years — or at least thin the number of competitors.
In the nine-candidate field this cycle, it's almost certain that no candidate will secure a majority of the votes cast on Tuesday to win outright. In the likely event there's no majority winner after Tuesday's vote, then the first- and second-place finishers from Election Day will advance to a runoff election held on April 4.
Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot — who's attempting to fend off eight challengers to continue serving as the Windy City's leader — herself said that she is "very confident that we will be in a runoff" after Tuesday. If she's not in first place, Lightfoot can only afford to have one other candidate finish ahead of her or she'll be eliminated before the runoff. She's also fighting against chronically underwater approval among her city's residents, and crime has continued to plague Chicago's streets during her tenure, making her reelection bid an uphill battle.
In the closing days of the mayoral campaign, an average of recent polls showed Lightfoot in second place with 18 percent behind former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas (22 percent) and only slightly ahead of U.S. Rep. Jesús "Chuy" Garcia (17 percent).
Behind those three, other potential runoff contenders were Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson (12 percent) and perennial candidate Willie Wilson (10 percent). The four other challengers (more on the candidates here) polled below five percent.
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But one of the last polls conducted just before Election Day showed Lightfoot falling to third place behind Vallas and Johnson, meaning the incumbent is not necessarily guaranteed to advance past the first round to April's runoff.
As always, Townhall has live results (below) from Chicago's mayoral election that will be updating throughout the evening as votes are counted and we'll find out whether Lori Lightfoot is on her way out or if she'll hang on for the final round in April's runoff election.
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