Update on April 3, 2018:

Lori Lightfoot won a run-off election for the position of Chicago's mayor on Tuesday, April 2, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. She will be the first black woman to assume the mayor's office, as well as the first openly gay person to do so.

Lightfoot won her historic victory against Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board, chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, and a 19-year alderman for the city's fourth ward. Critics highlighted Preckwinkle's connections with Ed Burke, an alderman who was charged with extortion.

Chicago's new mayor-elect, Lightfoot, is a former federal prosecutor who was appointed by out-going Mayor Rahm Emanuel to a panel investigating systemic racism in the Chicago Police Department. Activists have been critical of her history with law enforcement.

Related: Chicago's Broken Political Machine Is Being Challenged by Young Activists

Previously...

On April 2, voters in Chicago will head to the polls for a runoff vote between the two mayoral candidates who secured the most votes in the February 26 general election. No matter the outcome of the runoff election, one of those candidates — Toni Preckwinkle or Lori Lightfoot — will make history as the first African-American woman mayor to run the country’s third-largest city in its 181-year history.

There were a total of 14 candidates on the ballot in Chicago’s general election. According to the Chicago Tribune’s latest election results, Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, captured 17.5% of the vote, while Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, trailed slightly with 16.1% of the vote. According to WBEZ, each of the top two candidates received at least 6,000 more votes than the candidate who came in third, William Daley, who was projected as an early favorite due to the political clout his family names carries — Daley’s brother and father have both served as mayor of Chicago in the past.

Both Lightfoot and Preckwinkle ran on platforms they describe as politically progressive, though their positions on key issues facing the city of Chicago are as distinct as their paths to April’s forthcoming election.

Preckwinkle has the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Service Employees International Union. Preckwinkle’s chances were compromised when her (and several other candidates’) association with Chicago alderman Ed Burke, who was prosecuted for attempted extortion last month, according to WBEZ, was brought into question. Additionally, her former chief of staff was fired in light of accusations of sexual harassment, according to The New York Times.

“We may not yet be at the finish line, but we should acknowledge that history is being made,” Preckwinkle said once her position in the top two slots was solidified, according to the Chicago Tribune. “It’s clear we’re at a defining moment in our city’s history, but the challenges that our city faces are not simply ideological. It’s not enough to say Chicago stands at a crossroads. We need to fight to change its course.”

Lightfoot has been appointed to positions by two former Chicago mayors but is still seen as more of a political “outsider,” according to The New York Times, because she has never held elected office. She would not only be the city’s first African-American woman mayor, but also the first openly gay mayor to lead the city, according to The New York Times. Outgoing Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel tapped Lightfoot to be part of a panel that investigated issues of systemic racism within the Chicago Police Department following the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Laquan McDonald by CPD officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014, according to The New York Times. The Times described the report the panel produced as “scathing” — although according to a statement from the Black Youth Project, the Chicago Police Board, under Lightfoot’s leadership, did not do enough to “divest” from the police force in light of sustained lack of accountability. Lightfoot is now running on a platform of reducing gun violence in the city.

Both women want to overhaul the city’s school system, according to Chalkbeat.org, calling for an elected school board and a freeze on the opening of any more charter schools. They both say they are against the $95 million new police training academy proposed by Mayor Emanuel last year, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

“This, my friends, is what change looks like!” said Lightfoot, according to the Chicago Tribune.

According to the Tribune, this is only the second time the results of a Chicago general election have triggered a runoff. Voter turnout yesterday may turn out to be the lowest it’s ever been in the city, as well, with only 32.5% of registered voters turning out to the polls, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. According to ABC7 News, even though voters ages 25 to 44 constitute Chicago’s largest voting bloc, Chicagoans ages 55 to 64 had the largest turnout yesterday.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: How Family Separation at the Border Impacts Children