First. Black. Lesbian. Mayor. Of. A. Major. U.S. City.
It is difficult to overstate the historic nature of Lori Lightfoot’s landslide victory to become the next mayor of Chicago. In a runoff that pitted two black Democratic women progressives against each other, Lightfoot’s win puts her not only in one of the highest-profile positions for a black woman, but also makes her one of the highest-placed LGBTQ people in U.S. politics.
After she was declared the winner of the nation’s third-largest city with 70 percent of the vote, Lightfoot spoke to a jubilant crowd at her victory party Tuesday with her wife, Amy Eshleman, and their 11-year-old daughter Vivian by her side.
“Out there tonight, a lot of little girls and boys are watching,” Lightfoot said. “They’re watching us, and they’re seeing the beginning of something, well, a little bit different. They’re seeing a city reborn.”
Lightfoot said it again Wednesday morning as she took to greeting Chicagoans with the traditional subway glad-hand as they commuted to work.
“We felt very comfortable that we would have a nice margin based upon our internal polling and what we were hearing from other people across the city, but to sweep all 50 wards with that kind of margin, obviously it’s historic and it’s very, very gratifying.”
Pennsylvania State Rep. Brian Sims called Lightfoot’s win a “rainbow wave.”
“Did you know that only 0.1 percent of all elected officials in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ?” Sims posed, highlighting the Victory Fund’s efforts to elect LGBTQ politicians.
Lightfoot ran as the outsider candidate ready to break with the legendary Chicago political machine against Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle, a longtime Chicago politician. It was an ugly campaign, with antigay attacks on Lightfoot that included leaflets left on cars outside black churches. Preckwinkle’s own campaign aide, Scott Cisek, had posted a comment on Facebook with a Nazi reference while discussing Lightfoot’s career as a federal prosecutor. Cisek eventually removed the post and apologized for it, but Preckwinkle herself never apologized.
Some members of the Bernie Sanders-affiliated political group Democratic Socialists of America had also been vocal against Lightfoot, with handfuls of mostly white protesters claiming to be “Queers against Lightfoot” and claiming the candidate was “a cop” and “bad for black and brown people.”
Some DSA members have made similar claims about presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), also a black woman, who previous served as attorney general of California. There was a small but vocal disinformation campaign by self-proclaimed DSA members on both Facebook and Twitter, some of it incorporating screenshots of Cisek’s deleted post.
Despite the controversies and machinations against Lightfoot, the outsider candidate pledging to take the city into a new era won over voters.
“Being the first black woman and first lesbian to lead the city is monumental,” Lightfoot said in a TV interview Wednesday morning. “I think the most historic thing was beating the old, entrenched Chicago machine and getting such a resounding mandate for change.”
Victory Fund President Annise Parker, former mayor of Houston, was the highest-placed openly gay elected municipal official before Lightfoot. Parker was in Chicago campaigning for Lightfoot on Election Day.
“A black lesbian taking power in the nation’s third-largest city is a historic moment for so many communities that are too often ignored in American politics,” Parker said at the victory party. “Lori will certainly remain focused on the issues facing Chicago, but as the highest-ranking LGBTQ person ever elected mayor of an American city — a title she takes from me — she is also now a key leader in the movement to build LGBTQ political power nationwide.”
Lightfoot’s win resonated over social media Tuesday night when news outlets called the election soon after polls had closed. She received congratulations from numerous LGBTQ nonprofits and elected officials.
“Congratulations to Lori Lightfoot on her historic victory tonight as she becomes the first out LGBTQ person and first black woman elected mayor of Chicago,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Also Tuesday, voters in Madison, Wisc., elected Satya Rhodes-Conway as that city’s first openly gay mayor. The 47-year-old defeated Paul Soglin, who was first elected mayor of Madison 45 years ago, served in three different stints and was known as “Mayor for Life.”
Out lesbian is one of two African-American women candidates for Chicago mayor