CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot filed her petitions to run for a second term on Monday as Chicago’s election cycle enters a bare-knuckle period when candidates for local office try to knock each other off the ballot.
“With the filing today, one chapter in the campaign ends and another opens,” she said after submitting a stack of nominating papers that, sitting on the Board of Elections table, almost reached her shoulders. Surrounded by supporters and Chicago first lady Amy Eshleman, Lightfoot quipped that her pile of more than 40,000 signatures “looks like enough to me” before expressing that the next focus is on telling voters “why the only rational choice is to return me to office.”
She touted her record, asserting she’s run the country’s “most equitable” vaccine program, made progress toward transforming Chicago into the “safest big city in the nation” and protected “workers and workers’ rights.” She also tried to evoke the energy of her first campaign in 2019 as one of insurgency and change — though this time she now runs as the incumbent.
