Chicago mayoral candidates make final push to secure voters ahead of Tuesday's election
If no candidate has more than 50% on election day, there will be a runoff between the top two candidates
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The final push is on in Chicago's mayoral election.
Because the number of politicians in the race probably guarantees no one will win the seat outright, candidates are focused on turning out their political bases to secure a spot in a runoff.
With just days before the election, many of the nine candidates were out vying for votes to guarantee one of the two top spots in Tuesday's mayor's race.
If no candidate has more than 50% on election day, there will be a runoff between the top two candidates.
Former CPS CEO Paul Vallas remains in a strong position with conservative voters.
He courted North Side voters Saturday at Ann Sather restaurant, not directly addressing the controversy over his campaign's Twitter account "liking" offensive tweets.
"The issues are clear: crime, crime, crime and then schools and taxes," Vallas said. "So people want a problem solver."
Vallas' campaign later released a statement about the recent uproar surrounding its Twitter account.
"This kind of abhorrent and vile rhetoric does not represent me or my views," the statement said, in part. "We are working on identifying who is responsible for liking these tweets."
Meanwhile, it's still unclear how high early voter turnout and an uptick in mail-in voting will affect who wins.
Current Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot rallied with women voters Saturday as her campaign continues to struggle with criticism over high crime.
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U.S. Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia met with supporters canvassing in Southwest Side neighborhoods. He's counting on the Latino vote and his reputation as a coalition builder to lure progressives.
"I also want to receive votes from everywhere in Chicago, that's why we've campaigned hard rebuilding a coalition in this moment is really critical," Garcia said.
Support for Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson has recently surged enough to possibly secure a runoff spot.
"I'm really grateful to be in this position," Johnson said. "I'm looking forward to leading the city."
Johnson and South Side Alderman Roderick Sawyer attended a mayoral forum in Hyde Park.
Sawyer will need a wave of support beyond the Black vote to make it past Tuesday's election.
"It doesn't matter whether you are from the Northwest Side or downtown or Roseland or Englewood -- every vote is important," Sawyer said.
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Other mayoral candidates, like State Representative Kam Buckner and Alderman Sophia King, need huge turnouts for them to win, while activist Ja'Mal Green hopes for a high youth vote to turnout and businessman Willie Wilson leans on his support from Black voters.
Election Day is Tuesday. If necessary, the mayoral runoff would be April 4.
Vallas' full statement on controversy over his Twitter account:
"I do not personally manage the campaign's Twitter account and was shocked when this was brought to my attention because this kind of abhorrent and vile rhetoric does not represent me or my views. While I had nothing to do with liking these posts, our campaign takes responsibility and apologizes, and we want it to be clear that we have already taken immediate steps to restrict access to the account to prevent anything like this from happening again," Vallas said. "We are working on identifying who is responsible for liking these tweets as many volunteers have had access to the account in recent years, including some who are no longer with the campaign, and will take immediate action in removing them from our campaign if they are still involved."
