Lori Lightfoot becomes the first African American Mayor of Chicago

Former prosecutor Lori Lightfoot made history Tuesday by becoming the first African-American mayor of Chicago, and in the first openly gay counselor

According to a count published by The badociated press (AP), which examined the results of more than 70% of the electoral constituencies, Lori Lightfoot beat Toni Preckwinkle, his rival, with 74.2% of the vote, with 25.8% of the vote.

The forecasts of the investigations were thus carried out, which gave the unanimity Lightfoot as the big winner of the night, after the first round of February, during which 14 candidates were presented and 12 were eliminated.

Then the former prosecutor, aged 56, got 17.5% of the vote.followed by Preckwinkle, 72, with 16.1%. In the second round only, they would contest, writing from that day a new chapter for the chronicles of Chicago, destined to be both African-American women.

Despite his inexperience in an administrative position public and in politics, Lightfoot beat the Democratic Party candidate on Tuesday, April 2, in elections held without incident.

The lawyer, who worked for the prestigious private law firm Mayer Brown LLP., became the successor of Rahm Emanuel, who, after eight years in power, had excluded from submitting to a third term.

The proposals of Lori Lightfoot

In his fight for the Mayor, Lightfoot emphasized the need for fight against armed violence which ravages the city, the third most populated of the United States.

With 550 homicides in 2018, Chicago also remained the metropolis with the highest crime rate from the country, over New York and Los Angeles.

Lori Lightfoot promised police reforms and presented himself as the cure for the policies of his predecessor, The Democrat Rahm Emanuel, who during his tenure closed public schools in which African-American and Hispanic youths have studied for lack of budget.

He explained that as Mayor he would focus on invest in the western and southern neighborhoods and that it would ensure the transparency of the actions and accounts of the municipality. His goal, he said, would be to regain the trust of citizens in his government, after a study from the University of Illinois ensured that Chicago was the most corrupt city from the country.

His relationship with the ex-regidor was not always distant. In 2014, Rahm Emanuel asked him to run a cabinet that investigate police brutality. He put it in front of the Police Accountability Committee after a white agent killed African American teenager Laquan McDonald with 16 shots.

The report prepared by the cabinet was devastating. He concluded that the police department was suffering from systematic racism. Lightfoot resigned and left the mayor. She was then an unknown figure to the vast majority of the citizens of Chicago, but that changed when she decided to submit her candidacy to the polls.

On Wednesday, she will meet in press conference her rival Toni Preckwinkle, who accused her during the election campaign "a rich corporate lawyer"and not having enough experience." And it is likely that the Democratic candidate will express at the meeting with the words that Lightfoot had recognized a few weeks ago that he wanted to hear his opponent: "Congratulations, Mayor.