The race between the candidates to become the next mayor of the city of Chicago will culminate on Tuesday, when residents go to the polls for the election. There will be nine candidates to choose from, with at least four of them set to be viewed as serious contenders.
Many of the competitors have used crime in their campaign runs, as Chicago has routinely grappled with rising murder and murder rates. The incumbent, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, has fought to make improvements to the cities’ problems during her time in office, and she’s unsure about repeating her term when the election is over.
Paul Vallas is the favorite to win the Chicago mayoral race
Lightfoot is currently on the losers list, with a +300 tag making her an unlikely starter. The leader on the odds list and the person most likely to fill Lightfoot’s job is former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas.
Vallas has focused his campaign on bolstering police departments and investing in charter schools to help reduce crime rates, and he has a commanding lead according to punters. He is the outright favourite, with his line betting coming in at -200. There is a bet proposition on BetOnline.ag that allows you to choose whether or not a candidate finishes in the top 2. Fences is trading at a whopping -20000, with Lightfoot at -200.
The other two candidates have longer chances, but they have better odds than any of the other nine people running for office. Brandon Johnson is the former Cook County Commissioner and has a +600 designation. He’s recently come under fire for his past pleas to defund the police, but being a black candidate confers certain advantages in a racism-fuelled election city.
Chuey Garcia is a Mexican-born candidate, who previously endorsed Lightfoot in the 2019 mayoral runoff. He is a progressive and a major underdog with a 1000+ list to be the first Chicago-born Hispanic mayor.
Race will play a big role in the selection of Chicago’s next mayor, and it appears that Paul Vallas has the best chance of receiving multicultural votes. The city is also somewhat new when it comes to political diversity when it comes to the mayoral position, having been led by Richard J. Daley for over 20 years, and then his son for 22 years after that.
