[13] Later, in 2018, more opponents would declare their intent to run against Emanuel, with Garry McCarthy and Willie Wilson doing so in March,[14][15] Dorothy A.

Brown Cook, Ja'Mal Green, and Neal Sáles-Griffin doing so in April,[16][17] Lori Lightfoot, John Kozlar, and Paul Vallas doing so in May,[18][19] Matthew Rooney doing so in June,[20] and Amara Enyia and Jerry Joyce doing so in August.

Mayoral candidates Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza, Gery Chico, and Bill Daley all had connections to the disgraced alderman, and the scandal encouraged an anti-corruption and anti-machine politics sentiment among voters.

[32] Another issue was education, where sub-issues included school closings that had taken place under the Emanuel administration and the possibility of reforming the school-board selection method.

[32] Particularly in light of cases such as the murder of Laquan McDonald, issues regarding practices by the city's law enforcement were also discussed by candidates.

[34][35][36] The first round of the election was considered highly competitive to the end, with a number of candidates shown by polls to be viable contenders to potentially advance to the run off.

[37] On February 24, The Wall Street Journal described the race's polling as showing six candidates with the possibility of making the runoff, with the five strongest contenders being described as (in alphabetical order) Chico, Daley, Lightfoot, Mendoza, and Preckwinkle.

[43][44][45][46] Despite her low poll numbers in January, Lightfoot had persisted in her campaign, performing well in debates and running some ads on television.

[40] She also garnered new personal endorsements, including those of the Scott Waguespack, David Orr, and Robin Kelly, of whom the Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Brown would later write in exploring the contributing factors to Lightfoot's first-round victory, "none of them heavyweights but influential enough to point the way for progressive voters looking for some sign, any sign, of how to pick their way through the thicket of candidates.

[40] Lightfoot also was seen as ultimately benefiting from the Burke corruption scandal, as she was running as a "political outsider" on an anti-corruption platform.

[49] The second incident where Preckwinkle's camp generated free headlines for Lightfoot was when, days before the first round of the election, her campaign manager, Scott Cisek, published a Facebook post likening Lightfoot to a Nazi, leading to his firing by the Preckwinkle campaign.

[48] Lightfoot was seen as breaking the rules of traditional Chicago politics by not basing her candidacy on seeking the support of particular ethnic/racial groups.

For the runoff, Lightfoot received endorsements from seven of the twelve candidates that had been eliminated in the first round (Gery Chico, Jerry Joyce, John Kozlar, Susana Mendoza, Neal Sales-Griffin, Paul Vallas, and Willie Wilson).

[59] In a November 2019 retrospective, however, Edward McClelland of Chicago magazine wrote, "Lightfoot didn’t run as a progressive.

She ran as a reformer, the political outsider who promised to quash the Chicago Way, as exemplified by Alderman Ed Burke and all the mayoral candidates who took his money.

[64] If any candidate failed to file a statement of economic interests within five days of having their petition certified, then their certification would be revoked.

[64][65] Even if they informally withdrew by ceasing to campaign, all certified candidates that did not file to formally withdraw before the December 20 deadline would have their names listed on the ballot regardless of whether they were still active contenders.

[34][35][36] Chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force A full list of eligible write-ins was made available to precincts on election day.

[4][3] The Steve James documentary series City So Real, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was later televised on National Geographic on October 28, 2020, centers on the mayoral election.