Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blames election loss on racism, gender

Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed racism and her gender for her landslide defeat in her re-election bid, as Chicagoans wary of the rising crime of her watch celebrated her fall from “political rock star to rock bottom.”

“I’m a black woman in America. Of course,” she replied when asked by a reporter if she had been treated unfairly.

But she called being Chicago’s mayor “the honor of a lifetime.”

“Regardless of tonight’s outcome, we fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path,” Lightfoot said, as she urged her fellow mayors around the US not to fear being bold.

Amid heavy criticism for the crime wave, homelessness and other troubles plaguing the city, the mayor had also injected race in the run-up to the election.

“I am a black woman — let’s not forget,” Lightfoot, 60, told the New Yorker in a piece that ran Saturday. “Certain folks, frankly, don’t support us in leadership roles.”

The Chicago Tribune called her loss a “political embarrassment” and argued that crime “skyrocketed” on her watch.