Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot became the latest liberal leader to discover Democratic voters have soured on the Left’s leniency on crime when she became the first mayor of her city in 40 years to lose reelection this week.
Over the past two years, Democrats who embraced a liberal criminal justice agenda at the city level have found themselves increasingly unwelcome among voters who once applauded their views.
That shift could portend a broader reckoning within the Democratic Party over how to square its ascendant activist wing with the reality that liberal reforms have remade big city politics.
Lightfoot failed to land a spot in the runoff after placing third on Tuesday behind two other Democratic candidates. It was a stunning fall from grace for a Democratic mayor who, just four years earlier, swept into office with a 48 percentage-point victory.
