Former assistant U.S. attorney Lori Lightfoot has been elected the first African-American woman and openly gay mayor of Chicago.
“We may be strangers but in this room, in this city we are all neighbors,” Lightfoot said to a cheering crowd after the results came in on Tuesday.
Lightfoot was a part of a historic runoff against Toni Preckwinkle, who is also African-American.
During her campaign celebration, Lightfoot, 56, told her supporters they were going to remake Chicago.
“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.”
After the results came in, Preckwinkle pledged to continue working on issues that are important to her.
“This may not be the outcome we wanted but while I may be disappointed, I’m not disheartened,” Preckwinkle told supporters.
