Ex-Obama education chief won’t run for Chicago mayor

Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will not mount a bid to become mayor of Chicago in 2023, he said, ending months of speculation he helped stoke as he became increasingly critical of the incumbent.

Duncan, 57, said in a statement released Tuesday that he would keep his position running a gun violence prevention organization, Chicago CRED.

“I am exactly where I need to be, doing the work I love. I have never been part of a more courageous and committed team. The best way I can serve our city is to stay laser focused on reducing gun violence and stay engaged at our sites, on the streets and in the lives of our participants,” Duncan said in a statement. “After a lot of thought, I have decided I will not be running for Mayor but will work with anyone serious about making our city safer.”

A Duncan adviser declined to offer any more details about his decision to forgo the race.

Duncan had raised his profile in recent months with vocal criticism of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her approach to Chicago’s rising crime rate. In January, he told reporters he was considering a run after delivering a plan to revamp the city’s police department.

Duncan served as chief executive of Chicago Public Schools under Mayor Richard Daley before leaving in 2009 to join President Obama’s administration as education chief.

Lightfoot’s tenure has been beset by crises since she took office in 2019, from the coronavirus pandemic and a high-profile fight with city teachers over returning to the classroom to rising violence that led to more homicides last year than at any point since the 1990s.

Lightfoot, a Democrat, finished first in the all-candidate primary in 2019, then coasted to a nearly 50-point victory over the second-place finisher, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, a fellow Democrat.

She is likely to face one or more prominent challengers next year. Chicago political activists and strategists point to state Rep. Kam Buckner (D), Alderman Roderick Sawyer, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson as potential candidates. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D), who ran for and lost a race for mayor in 2015, is also considered a potential candidate.