Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fell short of an outright win in his reelection battle Tuesday — despite President Barack Obama putting his hometown political clout on the line to push his former top aide over the finish line — and will face the second-place finisher in an April runoff.

Emanuel pulled in 45 percent of the vote — well short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia finished second at 34 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.


There is nothing to suggest that Obama is at fault for Emanuel’s showing. The mayor has had a rocky first term highlighted by clashes with teachers, a wave of violent crime and backlash over his plan to increase taxes. The famously hot-tempered Emanuel, long known in Chicago and Washington as “Rahmbo,” also met criticism for his sometimes hard-headed style.

But the result is also a disappointment for Obama, who put himself at the forefront during the final days of the campaign. He cut radio ads for Emanuel, his first White House chief of staff. And on Thursday, just five days before the election, the president flew into Chicago to give the mayor a boost. They appeared together at a stop in the Pullman neighborhood, where the president declared that he could not “be prouder of [Emanuel] and the extraordinary service he’s provided.”

Obama and Emanuel then made a trek to one of the mayor’s campaign headquarters, where the president told volunteers that Emanuel was “somebody who cares deeply about this city.” Video of the president’s testimonial ended up in the mayor’s final television ad before Tuesday’s vote.

Those appeals, however, were not enough to give Emanuel, who was facing a group of underfunded and less well-known opponents, a majority of the vote.

Although Emanuel will start as the heavy favorite to retain his seat, Garcia, a Cook County commissioner, will have an opening to consolidate the mayor’s opposition. Garcia, businessman Willie Wilson (who won 11 percent of the vote on Tuesday) and Alderman Bob Fioretti (7 percent) and activist William “Dock” Walls (3 percent) portrayed Emanuel as beholden to wealthy special interests, hostile to teachers and ineffective at solving the city’s crime problems.

Polls showed Emaunel closing in on a majority in recent weeks but never quite clearing the threshold. Emanuel vastly outraised his opponents, pulling in $13 million to Garcia’s $1 million. While Emanuel ran a slate of TV commercials, including one that featured Obama, Garcia was able to air only one TV ad.

Aside from his financial disadvantages in the contest, Garcia will face obstacles to securing the voters who backed other hopefuls. While Garcia has appealed to progressives and Hispanics, Wilson earned support from black residents and Fioretti from white, working-class voters.

The outcome is the latest personal political setback for Obama, who has recently watched several allies fall short at the ballot box: Incumbent Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie — a family friend — lost his own party primary in August despite Obama’s intervention, then Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn went down to a Republican in November.

The president and his political team now must decide how — or whether — to engage in a runoff election that will put Emanuel’s controversial tenure under the national microscope. Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, declined to comment on Obama’s plans to buttress Emanuel other than to say he is “supportive and will do what we can to help.”

Behind the scenes, sources close to the mayor say, Emanuel and Obama have stayed in close contact throughout the contest. They have been talking by phone every few weeks, and in late November, during a visit to Washington, D.C., Emanuel stopped by the White House for a private meeting with the president.

The planning for Obama’s trip to Chicago was nearly three weeks in the making, the sources said.

In many ways, Obama was the ideal surrogate for Emanuel. While the president has seen his popularity ebb nationwide since taking office, he remains popular in his hometown.

He is particularly popular among the group of voters who have complained most bitterly about Emanuel’s tenure: African-Americans. Many of them have been deeply unhappy about the mayor’s controversial 2013 decision to close 50 underperforming schools, most of them in hard-scrabble neighborhoods. In sending the children to schools elsewhere, Emanuel argued, he was ensuring they received a better education.

During the closing days of the contest, polls showed a large percentage of black voters uncommitted. In praising Emanuel, Obama adopted a simple line of attack designed to appeal to those voters who were squeamish about supporting him: that he has been willing to make tough decisions, even if they didn’t make everyone happy.

“If you want a mayor who does what’s right, not just what’s popular, who fights night and day for the city we love, then I hope you’ll join me,” Obama said in a radio ad for Emanuel.

Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.