How the Chicago neighborhoods voted in the first round of the mayoral election

All precincts have reported from the Chicago municipal elections last week, which resulted in incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot losing her reelection bid while former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson advanced to a runoff, which will be held on April 4. The full results according to the Chicago Board of Elections are below.

1. Paul Vallas: 179,740 (33.24%)
2. Brandon Johnson: 114,262 (21.13%)
3. Lori Lightfoot: 91,405 (16.91%)
4. Jesús “Chuy” García: 73,964 (13.68%)
5. Willie Wilson: 50,366 (9.32%)
6. Ja’Mal Green: 11,584 (2.14%)
7. Kam Buckner: 10,229 (1.89%)
8. Sophia King: 6,813 (1.26%)
9. Roderick Sawyer: 2,316 (0.43%)

Political consultant Frank Calabrese tweeted a map of the city, breaking down how each neighborhood voted for Mayor. The majority of Lightfoot’s votes came from the South Side neighborhoods of the city, comprised of mostly Black voters. She also garnered some West side neighborhoods as well. This is in stark contrast to the 2019 general election, where Lightfoot garnered most of her support from the North Side and Lakefront communities with a base of many white and LGBTQ supporters. This time around, Vallas and Johnson split the northside vote, which was enough to prevent Lightfoot from advancing to the runoff.

With updated vote totals, Paul Vallas @PaulVallas & Brandon Johnson @Brandon4Chicago defeat Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot @LoriLightfoot & advance to a runoff. Vallas & Johnson split the northside. Lightfoot won every Black majority ward. #chimayor23 #twill #ElectionTwitter pic.twitter.com/J1Sgvd6VK8

— Frank Calabrese (@FrankCalabrese) March 6, 2023

Many of the Hispanic West side neighborhoods were won by García, who vastly underperformed compared to the 2015 election. García took incumbent Mayor Rahm Emmanuel to a runoff that year with 33.5% of the vote. This time, García’s campaign was unable to gain momentum after his opponents blasted him for his association with indicted former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried.

Here is the raw vote count for 4th place winner Chuy Garcia. pic.twitter.com/3sHP73ZwBv

— Chicago Urbanist ️ (@chi_urbanist) March 2, 2023

Dr. Willie Wilson performed very similarly to how he did the 2019 election, where he received 10.6% of the vote. His votes also mostly came from the South Side neighborhoods, with much of his support coming from the 21st, 8th and 9th wards.

With the results, Lightfoot became the first elected mayor of Chicago since Jane Byrne (1983) to not win reelection after her first term. Her successor will be one of two candidates representing very different sides of the Democratic Party. Johnson is known for his community organization skills during his time with the Chicago Teacher’s Union, and his policy ideas to address extremely high crime rates in Chicago have been criticized as efforts to defund the police department. On the other side of the spectrum is Vallas, who has described himself as a Republican in the past. Vallas has also been endorsed by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police and thus is accused of having close ties with their leader John Cantanzara, who is a firm supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump and regularly makes inflammatory remarks.

Chicago voters have made it known that addressing crime rates is high on their priority list, and they will have two candidates with very different approaches to this problem to choose from on April 4.

Disclaimer: Brandon Johnson previously hosted a weekend program, “Sunday Mornings with Brandon Johnson,” on WCPT 820AM prior to his mayoral campaign. This has not influenced and will not influence Heartland Signal’s editorial process in covering the 2023 Chicago mayoral election.