Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle garnered the most votes, but neither received the more than 50% needed to avoid 2 April runoff

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A former federal prosecutor and a county board leader will face each other in a runoff for the mayorship of Chicago this spring – in a contest that will result in the city being led by its first black female mayor.

The two women topped a large field of candidates in Tuesday’s election that included a member of the Daley family that has dominated the city’s politics for much of the last six decades.

Political outsider Lori Lightfoot, who was a federal prosecutor in northern Illinois, and the Cook county board president, Toni Preckwinkle, garnered the most votes among 14 candidates, but neither received more than the 50% needed to avoid a runoff on 2 April. The winner will succeed Rahm Emanuel to lead the nation’s third-largest city. Emanuel did not seek re-election.

Among those Lightfoot and Preckwinkle defeated on Tuesday was William Daley, who has never held major elected office but featured the most famous surname in the race. His father, Richard J Daley, and brother, Richard M Daley, held the city’s top job for a total of nearly 43 years out of a 55-year span, before Emanuel took the oath in 2011.

Emanuel’s decision not to seek a third term drew some of the biggest names in state and municipal government as would-be successors, along with some political newcomers with strong support, in a transitional election for a metropolis still struggling to shed its reputation for corruption, police brutality and street violence.

“What do you think of us now?” Lightfoot said on Tuesday night to a crowd of her supporters. “This is what change looks like.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lori Lightfoot addresses the crowd at her election night party in Chicago on 26 February. Photograph: Tyler LaRiviere/AP

Lightfoot, the first openly gay woman to run for Chicago mayor, has been critical of efforts to reform the Chicago police department in the wake of the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white police officer.

Preckwinkle, who leads the county’s Democratic party, also made a campaign issue out of McDonald’s shooting.

“We may not be at the finish line. But, we should acknowledge that history is being made,” Preckwinkle told her supporters.

Turnout was low on Tuesday. Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago board of election, said by late afternoon turnout was about 27% of registered voters.

Get a new perspective on the US. Sign up for the morning briefing Read more

“It appears that some voters either just disengaged or are not willing to make a decision until they know who’s in the runoff, assuming there is a runoff,” Allen said.

Businessman Willie Wilson, the Illinois comptroller, Susana Mendoza, and activist Amara Enyia, who received financial support from Kanye West and Chance the Rapper, rounded out the top vote-getters.

The variety of candidates reflected the many issues facing Chicago’s next mayor: poor neighborhoods in need of investment, overwhelming pension debt, low-performing public schools and a crime rate that is often pointed to as among the nation’s worst.

However, an issue that took center stage in the contest is the need to change how business is conducted at city hall. For some that means an end to pay-to-play, paying off influential politicians in order to do business in the city.

Reforming the city’s police department is also a job the winning candidate can’t dodge. A consent decree approved last month by US district judge Robert Dow Jr is aimed at tightening supervision, improving training and fixing the department’s disciplinary system.