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“Now that it’s over I know that we will work together for the city that we both love,” Lightfoot said at her campaign celebration. “Today you did more than make history, you created a movement for change.”
She told her followers they were going to remake Chicago, home to 2.7 million people.
“Now we’re going to take the next steps together,” she said. “Together we can and will finally put the interests of our people, all of our people, against the interests of a powerful few.”
Her competitor vowed to keep working on issues important to her.
“This may not be the outcome we wanted but while I may be disappointed, I’m not disheartened,” Preckwinkle told supporters after she called Lightfoot to congratulate her.
Lightfoot, 56, a former assistant US attorney, describes herself as “an out and proud black lesbian.” When she is sworn in, she will be the first mayor in the Windy City who identifies as a lesbian.
In the wake of the Laquan McDonald scandal — in which a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shot the black teenager 16 times as he walked away from police — Lightfoot was appointed by Emanuel to head the newly created police accountability task force.
The next mayor will face issues like crime and police-community relations.
Violent crime totals in Chicago have made headlines in recent years. In 2016, the city reported its highest number of homicides in two decades: 762.
But killings have dropped since then: 650 in 2017 and 550 in 2018.
Police have credited the drop in violence partly to hiring more police officers, and stronger community policing. The department added 1,161 officers in two years, exceeding a 2016 pledge made by Emanuel and police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to add 970.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
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