The 2023 Chicago mayoral election will take place on February 28. Five of the candidates, including incumbent Lori Lightfoot, attended a meeting with Chicago-raised rap star Lil Durk.
Yesterday, Lil Durk posted photos with Lori Lightfoot and other local officials to his verified Instagram account. The Voice of the Heroes album creator also shared a message with his followers.
“If I haven’t been picking up my phone I [have] been busy being a neighborhood hero! #PaveTheWay,” wrote Durk on Instagram. That post amassed over 5,000 comments and 500,000 likes in ten hours.
According to the WGN-TV website, the mayoral candidates sat down with around thirty high school students on Tuesday. Lil Durk’s Neighborhood Heroes Foundation hosted the “Dinner with Durk” event.
“Tonight is an opportunity for us to express what goes on in our neighborhood and what we want to see change,” 17-year-old Melvin Bush told the outlet. “[The election] is an important thing that determines our future and the future of our communities as well.”
Lori Lightfoot became the first LGBT Black woman elected mayor of a major United States city when she won the runoff election in 2019. The Democratic politician achieved internet fame the following year as the “Where’s Lightfoot” meme went viral during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
In addition to Mayor Lightfoot, Lil Durk met with fellow office seekers Ja’Mal Green, Kam Buckner, Brandon Johnson, and Roderick Sawyer. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx also attended “Dinner with Durk” at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse.
Kim Foxx is best known nationally for recusing herself from the 2019 hate crime hoax case involving Empire actor Jussie Smollett. The former Cabrini-Green Housing Project resident also oversaw the state’s sex abuse case against R&B singer R. Kelly.