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CHICAGO (CBS)– Ald. Sophia King (4th) announced she’s joining the growing list of candidates planning to run against Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2023.
King, who chairs the City Council Progressive Caucus, is the first woman to announce plans to challenge Lightfoot. She represents the 4th Ward, which includes parts of the South Loop, Bronzeville, Hyde Park, and Kenwood neighborhoods.
Her newly released campaign video takes aim at violent crime in Chicago, starting with her visiting the site near 43rd Street and Berkeley Avenue, where a shooting took place just days after she first took office in 2016.
“Violence is not an abstract problem to me. I have seen the pain it causes way too many times. There’s no question about it: we have to hold the people who commit violent crimes accountable, and we have to hold our leaders accountable too,” she said.
King also took aim at Lightfoot’s combative relationship with the City Council and overall governing style.
“I am running for mayor because we need more collaboration, not more confrontation, and we can go further together,” King said.
King has been on the City Council since 2016, when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to fill the vacancy left when Ald. Will Burns resigned.
In one of his first acts after leaving the White House, former President Barack Obama endorsed longtime friend King in the special election for alderman in his home ward on the South Side back in 2017.
King is the third sitting alderperson to announce plans to run for mayor, joining Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th). Others who have announced plans to run for mayor in 2023 include businessman Willie Wilson, former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner, community activist Ja’Mal Green, and Chicago police officer Frederick Collins.
Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara had announced last year he planned to run for mayor, but earlier this week said he’s no longer running.
Other potential candidates who have been weighing bids for mayor include Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), Ald. Tom Tunney (44th), Chicago Teachers Union vice president Stacy Davis Gates, Illinois State Rep. La Shawn Ford, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson.
Source: ChicagoCBS
