Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday is expected to announce her 2023 re-election campaign at a private event for donors and close allies in River North, sources told NBC 5 political reporter Mary Ann Ahern.
While Lightfoot has not yet publicly announced that she will run for re-election, she has hinted at it in interviews and at events, and she has been raising funds to do so. In April, Lightfoot told the Chicago Sun-Times that she will seek a second term in office.
In 2019, Lightfoot made history when she became Chicago's first Black, female mayor and the city's first openly gay mayor. She also won in a landslide victory in all 50 wards against her opponent, Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle.
During her time in office, Lightfoot has faced criticism from a number of groups, ranging from the Chicago Teachers Union in 2019 for her handling of the teachers' strike that year, to the ACLU in 2022 regarding Lightfoot's Millennium Park curfew for unaccompanied minors.
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Currently, six other candidates have announced their 2023 run for mayor: State Rep. Kam Buckner, police officer Frederick Collins, Ald. Ray Lopez, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, and Chicago businessman and philanthropist Willie Wilson.
Another 10 candidates, including Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara and CTU President Jesse Sharkey, are considering running as well, sources tell Ahern.
Lightfoot is expected to publicly announce her re-election campaign on Wednesday.
