A preview of Tuesday's municipal elections in Chicago
We’ve brought you regular updates about the forthcoming Windy City elections. Now, the first round is here. Here’s a quick summary of what will be on the ballot.
On Tuesday, Chicago will hold nonpartisan elections for mayor, city treasurer, city clerk, and all 50 seats on the city council. Any race in which no candidate receives a majority of the vote will go to a runoff on April 2. Early voting has been underway in the city since January 29.
Incumbent Rahm Emanuel announced in September 2018 that he would not seek re-election, creating an open-seat race. Emanuel was first elected mayor in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. Fourteen candidates qualified for the ballot. Recent media polls show no candidate receiving more than 15 percent support, with undecided voters making up the largest share.
In the city council races, 45 incumbents are seeking re-election, with five running unopposed. In 2015, 44 incumbent council members ran for re-election. Seven were defeated—an incumbent re-election rate of 84 percent.
Incumbent city clerk Anna Valencia is running unopposed for her a full four-year term, after she was appointed to the post in December 2016. Three candidates are running in the open-seat city treasurer race.
Chicago’s total budget is approximately $8.6 billion, comparable in size to the budget of Iowa.
Can’t get enough of Chicago? There is still time to register for our free webinar today previewing these elections, which is being held at 1:30 p.m. central time. Just click here for more details. We also invite you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter about Chicago elections, The Deep Dish, where we will continue to cover these races. If you subscribe today, you’ll get our post-election results edition delivered to your inbox on Wednesday.
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