With Mayor Lori Lightfoot's inauguration, 3 women of color now hold top citywide offices: 'Chicago was ready for this'
Chicago’s new treasurer and clerk helped score one of the bigger ovations of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s inaugural address Monday, when City Hall’s new leader announced that the trio were the first women of color to simultaneously hold all three citywide elected offices.
City Clerk Anna Valencia and Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin took their respective oaths of office at Wintrust Arena with a bit of flourish.
Valencia swore in, waved to supporters, then immediately turned to administer the oath to a reshaped City Council. Conyears-Ervin bent to rest her hand on a Bible held by her 3-year-old daughter, Jeneva. Both women, alongside the mayor, now control important levers of city power.
Lightfoot acknowledged the moment during her first mayoral address while describing her “Chicago dream.”
“I know we’re a little bit closer (to that dream) as we celebrate that, for the first time in the history of Chicago, women of color now hold all three citywide elected offices,” Lightfoot said to cheers as she congratulated Valencia and Conyears-Ervin.
“It’s a hard moment to capture,” Valencia said after the ceremony. “There is this rise of energy of leaders and new women in Congress ... and now we’re seeing it in city government. It’s exciting to see what opportunity we have with this moment and this momentum — of three women, and strong women, running the city of Chicago.”
Conyears-Ervin, a former state representative, described Lightfoot’s acknowledgment as “surreal.”
“Chicago was ready for this,” Conyears-Ervin said. “I’m just excited that Chicago trusted us, three women of color, to lead this city to a place that we’ve never been. That is overwhelming, but it’s very humbling.”
Only votes for Valencia, the incumbent clerk, were counted in this year’s election after an Illinois appeals court upheld the city election board’s decision to disqualify two challengers when officials found they didn’t get enough petition signatures to appear on the ballot.
Conyears-Ervin defeated outgoing 47th Ward Ald. Ameya Pawar and replaces former Treasurer Kurt Summers in the office that oversees the city’s bank accounts and investments.
Democratic Party officials tapped now-Rep. Jawaharial Williams to replace Conyears-Ervin as the 10th District representative in the Illinois House.
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