The city of Chicago, Illinois held a non-partisan mayoral election on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. Mayor Richard M. Daley, a member of the Democratic Party who had been in office since 1989, did not seek a seventh term as mayor.
Candidates needed to collect 12,500 petition signatures by November 22, 2010 to qualify for a place on the ballot. April 5, 2011 was scheduled to be a runoff election date if no candidate received a majority.
Rahm Emanuel won the race for mayor with more than 55% of the vote. He was inaugurated on May 16, 2011.
Six candidates appeared on the February 22 ballot: Gery Chico, former chief of staff to mayor Richard M. Daley and former chairman of the City Colleges of Chicago Miguel del Valle, City Clerk of Chicago and former Illinois State Senator Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff and former U.S. Representative from Illinois's 5th district Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Senator from Illinois and former United States Ambassador to New Zealand Patricia Van Pelt Watkins, non-profit administrator and activist William "Dock" Walls, community activist, businessman, former aide to Mayor Harold Washington and perennial candidate