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Massillon native Lori Lightfoot elected as Chicago's first female, black mayor

Posted at 10:01 PM, Apr 02, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-02 22:01:24-04

CHICAGO — Lori Lightfoot, 56, will become the first African-American female mayor of Chicago after winning her runoff election on Tuesday over Toni Preckwinkle. Lightfoot will replace Rahm Emanuel, who was a former White House staffer under Barack Obama, as mayor of America's third-largest city.

Lightfoot will also become the city's first openly gay mayor, and will make Chicago the largest city to be led by an openly gay mayor.

According to New 5's media partners at the Canton Repository, Lightfoot grew up in Massillon.

Lightfoot is a 1980 graduate of Washington High School.

It appears Lightfoot's win will be by a landslide. As of 8:40 pm. CT, she had 74 percent of the vote. Both candidates are Democrats.

Lightfoot was appointed by Emanuel in 2015 to head the Chicago Police Board.