Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving since 2019 as the 56th mayor of Chicago. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot worked in private legal practice as a partner at Mayer Brown and held various government positions in Chicago. Most notably, she served as president of the Chicago Police Board and chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force. Lightfoot ran for Mayor of Chicago in 2019, advancing to a runoff election against Toni Preckwinkle in the February 2019 election. She defeated Preckwinkle in the runoff on April 2, 2019.Lightfoot is the first LGBT black woman to be elected mayor of a major city in the United States. She is also the first black female mayor of Chicago. She is the second female (after Jane Byrne) and the third African-American (after Harold Washington and Eugene Sawyer) mayor of Chicago.
