The Chicago mayoral election of 2003 saw incumbent Mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

easily reelected against small and divided opposition, resulting in his best electoral showing of his career, winning by a landslide 64 point margin. By winning his fifth mayoral election, Daley tied Carter Harrison Sr. and Carter Harrison Jr. for the second-most mayoral election victories in Chicago history. Daley would subsequently win an additional mayoral election in 2007, thereby surpassing both Harrisons and tying his own father's record for the most mayoral election victories.

Campaign

On December 9, 2002, a spokesperson for Daley confirmed that Daley would be announcing his candidacy for reelection. Daley's candidacy was widely anticipated. A popular incumbent, Daley had won strong victories in the preceding four consecutive mayoral elections. All three of Daley's opponents were African Americans.Daley: A Retrospective: A Historical Exploration of Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley by Chicago Tribune Staff Dec 18, 2012
/ref>Daley Reign Continues In Chicago by Jarrett Murphy (Associated Press) February 26, 2003
/ref> Both Jakes,
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/ref> were clergy. McAllister was a businesswoman. Also briefly challenging Daley, but withdrawing from the race, had been

James Meeks James T. Meeks (born August 4, 1956) is a former Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, who represented the 15th district from 2003 to 2013. He is also an active Baptist minister in Chicago and chaired the Illinois Legislative Black Caucu ...

. All of Daley's opponents on the ballot had little electoral experience. They struggled in fundraising and failed to receive backing from black leaders. They also lacked

name recognition In politics, name recognition is the ability a voter has to identify a candidate's name due to a certain amount of previous exposure through various campaigning methods. It can be described as the awareness voters have about specific candidates r ...

. Their prospects of unseating Daley were seen as dim. While the election was nonpartisan, all candidates running were Democrats. As was the case in all of his reelection campaigns, Daley did not attend any debates.Chicago's Long-Running Daley Show Ken Rudin February 21, 2007
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Endorsements

Results

The election saw what was, up to that point, the lowest turnout in Chicago mayoral election history. Daley won a majority of the vote in each of the city's 50 wards.

Results by ward

References

2003

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

2003 Illinois elections 2000s in Chicago 2003 in Illinois Richard M. Daley {{Illinois-election-stub