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Mayor Rahm Emanuel fell short of the votes he needed to be re-elected during the city's non-partisan municipal election. He will face Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia in a runoff in early April.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

It will be another six weeks of campaigning for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He's hoping to lead the country's third-largest city for a second term, but the former White House chief of staff failed to capture more than 50 percent of the vote in Chicago's race for mayor yesterday. That's despite endorsements from President Obama and the city's major newspapers. NPR's Cheryl Corley has the story from Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: Thank you, Chicago.

(APPLAUSE)

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: In a voice hoarse from campaigning, Mayor Rahm Emanuel thanked supporters at his election night party and told them their work was not complete.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

EMANUEL: We have come a long way, and we have a little bit further to go. This is the first step in a real important journey for our city.

CORLEY: Emanuel ran against four challengers. And with nearly all the votes counted, he fell short of capturing the more than 50 percent vote count he needed. He'll face Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia, the second-place finisher in a runoff election in April. It was a disappointment to Emanuel supporters like Kenneth Williams, who tried to put the best face on the results.

KENNETH WILLIAMS: Well, I mean, you had a lot of players in the game. And, you know, people out there are not really informed. They don't really get the big picture.

CORLEY: The setback for Emanuel came even though he vastly outspent his challengers with millions of dollars of campaign funds that were raised in part from Hollywood directors and hedge fund executives. And just last week, President Obama traveled back home and praised his former chief of staff. David Axelrod, who served in the White House as a senior adviser to the president, said that was no reflection on Obama's influence.

DAVID AXELROD: He of all people coming out of independent politics here in Chicago would say he didn't expect to dictate what people's votes are.

CORLEY: And Axelrod says the relationship between the president and Rahm Emanuel will be helpful during the next phase of this campaign fight as people consider their final choices. Just a few blocks away, Chuy Garcia was holding a more exuberant election night party.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

JESUS CHUY GARCIA: How do you feel, Chicago?

(CHEERING)

CORLEY: Garcia said no one expected him to force a runoff since he had little campaign money, and the Emanuel camp dominated the airwaves with commercials.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

GARCIA: Well, we're still standing.

(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)

GARCIA: We're still running.

(CHEERING)

GARCIA: And we're going to win.

(CHEERING)

CORLEY: Four years ago, Emanuel won the mayoral seat outright, but his support waned after he backed a controversial decision to close 50 public schools in mostly minority communities, and high crime persisted in some neighborhoods. Critics also charge that Emanuel paid scant attention to city neighborhoods while focusing instead on the city's downtown. Garcia jumped into the race last October after the head of the Chicago Teachers Union ended her campaign when she became ill. Union spokesperson Stephanie Gadlin says the Teachers Union had 4,000 people out in the field for Garcia on Election Day.

STEPHANIE GADLIN: Obviously, we ran a superPAC of our own, which drilled down on targeted voters - African-American households, people whose schools were closed down, communities impacted by Rahm's policies, which are pretty much every neighborhood outside downtown Chicago.

CORLEY: Roughly 34 percent of Chicago's registered voters turned out for the election. Both the Emanuel and Garcia campaigns say they'll start working as soon as today to make sure those numbers are higher on April 7 when Chicagoans head to the polls again to select a mayor. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Faces Runoff In April

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subscribe to NPR Politics Podcast podcast Mayor Rahm Emanuel fell short of the votes he needed to be re-elected during the city's non-partisan municipal election. He will face Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia in a runoff in early April. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: It will be another six weeks of campaigning for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Faces Runoff In April (Feb. 25, 2015)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel fell short of the votes he needed to be re-elected during the city's non-partisan municipal election. He will face Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia in a runoff in early April.

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Rahm Emanuel faces runoff in Chicago to stay mayor (Feb. 25, 2015)
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is headed into a runoff to hold onto his seat after failing to snag more than half the vote in the first round Tuesday.

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rahm emanuel faces runoff in chicago to stay mayor - cnnpolitics

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Rahm Emanuel faces runoff in Chicago to stay mayor - CNNPolitics

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is headed into a runoff to hold onto his seat after failing to snag more than half the vote in the first round Tuesday.

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Mayor Emanuel forced into runoff election with Chuy Garcia (Feb. 25, 2015)
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel failed to capture a majority of the vote in Tuesday's municipal election, an embarrassment for the former White House chief of staff because it forces him into a runoff this spring against Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

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Fox 32 Chicago News, Weather, Breaking News, Sports, Live Reports | WFLD

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Fox 32 Chicago News, breaking news, local headlines, weather, sports traffic and more.

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Andy Shaw breaks down the Chicago mayoral runoff (Feb. 25, 2015)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel failed to capture a majority of the vote in Tuesday's municipal election, an embarrassment for the former White House chief of staff who now faces a runoff this spring against Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association explains more.

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Fox 32 Chicago News, Weather, Breaking News, Sports, Live Reports | WFLD

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Fox 32 Chicago News, breaking news, local headlines, weather, sports traffic and more.

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In Challenger, a Chastening for Emanuel (Feb. 25, 2015)
As he posed for photographs and took sips of steaming coffee with commuters at a subway station here early Wednesday morning, Jesús G. Garcia, the man who would be the first Hispanic mayor of Chicago, articulated what is likely to be a rallying call of his final six-week campaign to unseat the city’s well-financed incumbent, Rahm Emanuel.

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CHICAGO - As he posed for photographs and took sips of steaming coffee with commuters at a subway station here early Wednesday morning, Jesús G. Garcia, the man who would be the first Hispanic mayor of Chicago, articulated what is likely to be a rallying call of his final six-week campaign to unseat the city's well-financed incumbent, Rahm Emanuel.

"We were up against huge amounts of money and people with power who lined up to protect the status quo," Mr. Garcia said. "Voters rejected that."

Without actually winning the popular vote, Mr. Garcia, a county commissioner who is known as Chuy, gained a stunning victory Tuesday night in the first round of Chicago's mayoral election by denying Mr. Emanuel more than 50 percent of the vote, and thus forcing a runoff April 7.

The mayor won more than 45 percent of the vote to Mr. Garcia's 34 percent, but the gap was close enough to raise sharp questions about whether Mr. Emanuel, a former congressman and chief of staff to President Obama, could easily shake off the insurgent.

Mr. Garcia has strong support among the city's Hispanic population as well as from the teachers' union, which had its first strike in a quarter-century in 2012 amid acrimonious relations with Mr. Emanuel.

Speaking to reporters at a senior center on the South Side on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Emanuel, looking somewhat humbled, reached for a favorite expression of Chicago politicians. "Politics ain't beanbag," he said, adding that he had lost "five pounds, six pounds" because of the rigors of the campaign.

But Mr. Emanuel, 55, who has been accused of favoring the interests of affluent "1 percenters," pointed to his efforts on behalf of the working class, like raising the minimum wage to $13 an hour and making improvements to the mass transit system. And he insisted that some of his unpopular decisions, like closing nearly 50 underperforming schools, were needed to help the city move forward - unlike "the politics of the past, which denied, delayed or deferred our decisions."

"If we do the things that are necessary for the city, we're going to create jobs here in the city of Chicago," Mr. Emanuel said. "My job is to make sure that everybody has a chance to succeed in that effort."

To have emerged as the opposition's answer to the incumbent is a totally unexpected position for Mr. Garcia, 58, who a year ago was not on anyone's list of leading candidates. A former community organizer and city alderman, he was early in his political career an ally of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington.

He was encouraged to enter the race last fall by Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Ms. Lewis was considered a formidable challenger to Mr. Emanuel but abandoned her bid when she found out she had a brain tumor. Public schoolteachers, who are required to live in Chicago, also mobilized against Mr. Emanuel on Tuesday and were a strong base of support for Mr. Garcia. Other city unions are concerned that Mr. Emanuel may push for deep cuts to their pensions.

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Mr. Emanuel, who has had trouble gaining support among blacks, got 45 percent of the vote on Tuesday, not enough to win a second term outright. Credit Scott Olson/Getty Images

Born in Durango, a city in north central Mexico, Mr. Garcia polled strongest in the heavily Hispanic neighborhoods on the South and West Sides of the city, while Mr. Emanuel did best in the mostly white and more affluent districts in the northwest. Mr. Emanuel, who alienated many black voters with his school closings, won more votes than Mr. Garcia in many of the black districts, but did not do well enough to avoid the runoff or to counter Mr. Garcia's strong showing among Hispanics.

According to census data, 32 percent of Chicago's 2.7 million residents are white (non-Hispanic); 33 percent are African-American; and 29 percent are Hispanic.

Mr. Garcia will have a tough fight against Mr. Emanuel, a formidable fund-raiser and skilled politician who was President Obama's chief of staff. (The president visited Chicago last week, partly to show his support for Mr. Emanuel.) Mr. Garcia will be pressed to explain how he plans to solve Chicago's considerable budget problems and to curb gang violence. And he has lagged in fund-raising behind Mr. Emanuel, who has raised more than $13 million since 2012.

In a sign of how fierce the campaigning for black votes is likely to become, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Garcia on Wednesday began courting the endorsement of Willie Wilson, an African-American businessman who won more than 10 percent of the vote Tuesday, and whose image graces campaign posters around the South Side. On Wednesday, Mr. Emanuel went to Mr. Wilson's apartment, in a downtown high-rise along the river. The two sat in his kitchen for an hour, Mr. Wilson said, and Mr. Emanuel asked for his endorsement.

"Basically, he said that he wanted to make sure that he worked hard and would try to earn votes from African-Americans," Mr. Wilson said. "He was courteous and polite. He wanted me to support him."

Jesus Garcia, seen with his wife, Evelyn, will face Mr. Emanuel in a runoff vote on April 7. Mr. Garcia, a county commissioner known as Chuy, is popular among city workers and minorities. Credit Jim Young/Reuters

Later in the day, Mr. Garcia also visited Mr. Wilson. "They both want votes from African-Americans, because that's going to make the difference," he said.

Dick Simpson, a former city alderman and professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago who contributed to Mr. Garcia's campaign, said that the election in April would focus attention on some of Chicago's most intractable problems: crime, quality of public education and the sense among many residents, particularly on the heavily minority South Side, that they have been left out of the city's economic progress. "The focus of the voters will be much sharper because there are just two candidates" Mr. Simpson said. "All of that will make it much more intense. This is really a referendum on the mayor and his performance and his personality."

But Mr. Garcia, he said, will also have to convince voters that he is not only up to the job, but also is "going to have to have a more specific platform."

While shaking hands with commuters at an elevated train stop on Wednesday morning, Mr. Garcia promised that he would be providing more specifics about his vision in the next six weeks. "We'll have a chance to drill down deeper into the issues," he said. "And of course we're going to talk about the future of the city and how we can include all of the neighborhoods and the people of Chicago in the process of redirecting the direction of the city."

Salvador Gonzalez, who enthusiastically shook Mr. Garcia's hand as he rushed to work, said that he was drawn to the "positivity and energy" that Mr. Garcia seemed to promise.

Other voters said they still believed in Mr. Emanuel. "I think he has the best ideas for the city," said Percylene Ruff, 65, a resident of the Pullman neighborhood on the city's far South Side.

"A lot of people are upset with him for closing those schools," said Mary Ellen Baldwin, a minister. "But he's trying to make things better. I think he did real good. You can't please everybody."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Challenger, a Chastening for Emanuel. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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CHICAGO - As he posed for photographs and took sips of steaming coffee with commuters at a subway station here early Wednesday morning, Jesús G. Garcia, the man who would be the first Hispanic mayor of Chicago, articulated what is likely to be a rallying call of his final six-week campaign to unseat the city's well-financed incumbent, Rahm Emanuel.

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Progressives Celebrate Rahm Emanuel's Surprise Setback in Chicago (Feb. 25, 2015)

After Zephyr Teachout's underfunded progressive campaign held New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to a weak primary win, the left put Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on notice.  The former congressman and former Obama administration chief of staff had alienated not just the left, but also voters who were unimpressed by his job performance and worried about raging gun crime. He'd never recovered support from the left after almost 50 school closures led to a teacher's strike. A summer 2014 poll found that Emanuel would trail Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. For progressives, New York had hosted the pro bowl; Chicago would host the super bowl.

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Comparing Emanuel's 2011 election results with 2015 (Feb. 25, 2015)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel failed to avoid an April runoff during his re-election bid Tuesday. He won 45.4 percent of the vote, shy of the 50 percent-plus-one-vote needed. In comparison, Emanuel sailed to victory in 2011 with 55.3 percent of the vote. The maps below show how he fared in each election. Ward boundaries were redrawn between elections, so numbers between wards aren't an exact comparison.

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Comparing Emanuel's 2011 election results with 2015

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mayor Rahm Emanuel failed to avoid an April runoff during his re-election bid Tuesday. He won 45.4 percent of the vote, shy of the 50 percent-plus-one-vote needed. In comparison, Emanuel sailed to victory in 2011 with 55.3 percent of the vote. The maps below show how he fared in each election....