Chicago has held regularly scheduled popular elections to select the city's mayor ever since it was incorporated as a city in 1837.
Chicago currently holds regularly scheduled mayoral elections once every four years, in years prior to a presidential election.
Beginning with its 1999 mayoral election, Chicago has used a nonpartisan two-round system. Under this system, if no candidate secures an outright majority of the first-round vote a runoff will be held between the top-two finishers. No runoff is held if a candidate has secured an outright majority in the first round. Thus far, three elections (2015, 2019, 2023) have necessitated a runoff.
Up through its 1995 mayoral election, Chicago had formerly utilized partisan plurality voting.
History Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833. At that point it was governed by a board of trustees who were elected annually at large and elected a president from among themselves. Chicago's incorporation as a city in 1837 eliminated such a model in favor of a common council elected from wards and a separate office of mayor who was elected at large.
From 1838 through 1860, mayoral elections were held on the first Tuesday of March. From 1861 through 1867 they were held on the first Monday in April. From 1869 through 1875 they were held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. After 1876, they were held on the first Tuesday of April.
An act passed on March 4, 1837, had required that voters in municipal elections would need to be residents of the wards in which they voted and must be freeholders. An act passed on March 1, 1841, removed the requirement that voters be freeholders. Under the law of 1849-50 requirements were added, mandating (at the time) that voters reside in the town where they voted and must have lived in the state of Illinois for at least a year.
In 1875, the election guidelines outlined in the original city charter were abandoned in favor of those outlined in the Cities and Villages Act of 1872, which changed the date of mayoral elections (mandating that they be scheduled for the last Tuesday in April of odd-numbered years). Ambiguity concerning the effect this would have on the scheduling of the next election led to the April 1876 election that was later considered by the courts to be null and void. In addition, the mayoral term length (which up to this point had been one year) was extended by the 1872 Act to two years. Term length was subsequently further extended to four years in 1907.
In time for the 1911 election the Illinois legislature passed a law which scheduled Chicago mayoral party primaries for the last Tuesday of February.
On June 26, 1913, Illinois became the first state east of the Mississippi River to grant women's suffrage. 1915 was the first Chicago mayoral election to be held following this change.
Since 1935, elections to the Chicago City Council (which were extended to four years) have coincided with all regularly scheduled mayoral elections.
The 1995 election was the final mayoral election to be partisan. Beginning in 1999, elections have taken place on a non-partisan basis, with a system requiring that a candidate obtain a majority of the vote (if no candidate achieves this in the initial vote, a runoff is held between the top-two finishers). Under this new system, the initial round of voting is held on the last Tuesday of February (when party primaries were formerly scheduled), with any runoff taking place in April.
Additionally, the change in election laws that took effect for the 1999 election raised the number of signatures required for candidates to be included on the ballot from 3,000 to 25,000. This requirement, however, was halved to 12,500 before the 2007 election.
Term length There is not currently, nor has there ever been, a term limit on the mayoralty of Chicago. Terms were originally one year in length before being extended to two years in 1875 by the Cities and Villages Act of 1872. Term length was subsequently further extended to four years in 1907.
Years Term length1837−18751 year1875−19072 years1907−present4 years
Current election laws There are no term limits for Chicago's mayoral office.
Chicago's mayoral elections are currently nonpartisan. A candidate receiving a majority of votes cast will be declared elected. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a runoff election will be held between the two candidates who received the highest and second highest number of votes in the first round. The initial round of voting takes place on the last Tuesday of February, and any runoff takes place in April.
Mayoral candidates must be a registered voter who has resided in the City of Chicago for at least one year before the date of the election.
Individuals will be barred from taking office if, at the time required for them to take the oath of office, they are in arrears in the payment of tax or other indebtedness due to the City of Chicago. They will also be unable to take office if they have been convicted in any United States court of any infamous crime, bribery, perjury, or other felony.
A term of office lasts four years, from the third Monday in May until a successor is elected and qualified to assume office.
In order to be included on the ballot candidates must submit 12,500 valid signatures. Signatures cannot be collected more than four months in advance of the submission of a candidate's petition. Individuals are not permitted to sign multiple candidates' petitions, they may sign only a single mayoral candidate's petition.
Any candidate may have their petition challenged. Those candidates with properly filed challenges against their petitions will have their candidature subjected to hearings and procedures which will to assess the validity of their petitions.
If any candidate fails to file a statement of economic interests within five days of having their petition certified, then their certification will be revoked.
Write-in candidates must file a notarized declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate by a deadline. An extended deadline to do this is allotted to candidates whose petitions were rejected after this deadline due to the outcome of a challenge.
The order in which the candidates are listed on ballots is determined by the order in which their petitions were received (with those received earlier listed first and those received later being listed last). Lotteries are held to resolve instances in which petitions which were received simultaneously. The ballots of all candidates who were waiting in line to submit their petitions at 9:00 a.m. on the first day for petition filing will be deemed as having simultaneously filed at 9:00 a.m. They will be the first candidates listed, with a lottery being held to determine their order. Similarly, all candidates that filed within the last hour of the filing deadline will be deemed to have filed simultaneously. They will be the last candidates listed, and a lottery will be held to determine their order.
Candidates Demographics All but three of the individuals that have been elected mayor of Chicago have been White (the exceptions being African-American mayors Harold Washington, Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson). Additionally, all but two of the individuals that have been elected mayor of Chicago have been male (the exceptions being Jane Byrne and Lori Lightfoot).
African American/Black candidates Harold Washington, Lori Lightfoot, and Brandon Johnson are the only African Americans to be elected mayor, and are three of only four to have served as mayor (joined by Eugene Sawyer, who was appointed mayor following Washington's death in office)
African Americans who had unsuccessfully sought election as mayor prior to Washington's first successful campaign in 1983 include Washington himself in 1977; Dick Gregory in 1967; Richard H. Newhouse Jr. and Willie Mae Reid in 1975; Andrew Pulley in 1979 and Sheila A. Jones in 1983.
The 2019 election made history not just by electing Chicago's first Black woman as mayor, but by having two African American women candidates, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, be the ones to advance to the runoff. Additionally, a record eleven African American candidates filed to run in the 2019 election (Conrien Hykes Clark, Dorothy Brown, Amara Enyia, La Shawn Ford, Ja'Mal Green, Neal Sales-Griffin, Lori Lightfoot, Sandra Mallory, Toni Preckwinkle, Roger L. Washington, Willie Wilson). William "Dock" Walls and Troy LaRaviere had also been candidates in that election, but dropped out without officially filing petitions.
African Americans who had unsuccessfully sought election as mayor after Washington died in office and before the 2019 election include Timothy C. Evans, Sheila A. Jones Eugene Sawyer, and James C. Taylor in 1989; James Warren in 1991: Danny K. Davis in both 1991 and 2011; Joseph E. Garner and Lawrence C. Redmond in 1995; Roland Burris in both 1995 and 2011; Bobby Rush in 1999; Paul Jakes, Joseph McAfee and Patricia McAllister in 2003; Dorothy Brown in 2007; William "Dock" Walls III in 2007, 2015, and 2019; Carol Moseley Braun, Patricia Van Pelt Watkins, and James Meeks in 2011; Amara Enyia and Willie Wilson in 2015.
In the 2023 Chicago mayoral election, seven of the nine candidates on the ballot were Black (with one remaining candidate being Latino and the other being White).
Asian Pacific American candidates No Asian Pacific American has either been elected or otherwise served as mayor of Chicago One Asian Pacific American candidate ran in the 2019 mayoral election, (Neal Sales-Griffin)
Catholic candidates John Patrick Hopkins was the first Catholic to be elected mayor. Subsequent Catholics to be elected mayor include Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne, William Emmett Dever,The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition, fourth edition by Paul M. Green, Melvin G. Holli SIU Press, Jan 10, 2013 Edward Joseph Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, Michael Anthony Bilandic, Jane Byrne, Richard M. Daley. Additionally, Frank J. Corr served as mayor after being elected by City Council.
Hispanic candidates No Hispanic individual has either been elected or otherwise served as mayor of Chicago The first "hispanic" (Mexican/Native American) to run for mayor was former 25th Ward Alderman and Illinois State Representative, Attorney Juan M. Soliz. Several Hispanic candidates have unsuccessfully sought election as mayor in the past including William E. Rodriguez in 1911; Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle in 2011; Jesús "Chuy" García in 2015; Gery Chico, Neal Sales-Griffin, and Susana Mendoza in 2019.
Irish American candidates Twelve of Chicago's mayors have been Irish Americans. These include John Patrick Hopkins (the first to serve as mayor) Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne, William Emmett Dever, Edward Joseph Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, and Richard M. Daley. It also includes Frank J. Corr, who was appointed acting mayor by City Council.
Jewish candidates Rahm Emanuel is the only Jewish person to have been elected mayor. No Jews have otherwise served as mayor Jews who had unsuccessfully sought election as mayor prior to Emanuel's first successful campaign in 2011 include William Singer in 1975 and Bernard Epton in 1983.
LGBTQ candidates No openly LGBTQ individual had previously been elected or otherwise served as mayor of Chicago before 2019. In 2019, Lori Lightfoot became the first openly lesbian mayor in Chicago history
Women candidates Jane Byrne and Lori Lightfoot are the only women to have been elected mayor of Chicago. No woman has otherwise served as Mayor of Chicago
Women who had unsuccessfully sought election as mayor prior to Byrne's successful campaign in 1979 include Grace Gray in 1935 (the first woman ever to file to run for mayor of Chicago) and Willie Mae Reid in 1975