New polls show Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot might lose her Feb. 28 reelection race in the windy city.
Lightfoot trailed just behind former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, a Democrat, and Democratic Illinois Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García in a dead heat race, according to the WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times/Telemundo Chicago/NBC5 poll.
The two challengers have hammered Lightfoot over the city’s worsening crime problems under her leadership.
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Lightfoot earned 17% of the vote compared to 18% for Vallas and 20% for Garcia; the difference between the three candidates falls within the poll’s four-point margin of error, according to the poll.
Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson got 11% support, businessman Willie Wilson won 12%, and 18% of respondents were undecided; the race will go to an April 4 runoff if no candidate earns a majority of votes.
The city saw a 40% increase in crime from 2021 to 2022, including a 132% increase in motor vehicle thefts, a 56% increase in sexual assault reports, a 15% increase in robberies, and a 52% increase in thefts, according to the city’s crime statistics. Several major corporations have announced plans to exit the city over the past year amid rising crime, and about 9 in 10 Chicago residents considered leaving the city for lower-crime areas in the past year, according to a January AARP poll.
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Lightfoot, who now denies being a “defunder,” pledged to cut $80 million from the city’s police budget during protests in 2020.
The poll surveyed 625 registered voters by telephone from Jan. 31 through Feb. 3. All respondents said they were likely voters.
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