Alvarez spent the rest of the campaign rejecting calls for her resignation and dealing with protestors at her events, while Foxx earned the endorsement of the previously neutral county party. The challenger won the primary in a 58-29 landslide and declared on election night, “We are turning the page on a chapter in our history where we can begin to look forward and transform our criminal justice system.” Foxx easily prevailed in the general election in an early and high-profile win for criminal justice reformers.
The new state’s attorney pleased supporters by focusing on alternatives to jail, supporting an end to cash bail, and expunging thousands of low-level marijuana convictions. However, while Foxx and her allies pointed to data showing that violent crime had decreased during her first term, national Republicans and critics at home still insisted she was to blame for Chicago’s ongoing crime problems. She also attracted widespread attention in 2019 when a grand jury initially indicted actor Jussie Smollett after he was accused of faking a racist and homophobic attack on himself, only for Foxx’s office to drop the charges. (Foxx said she had recused herself from the case.)
Former prosecutor Bill Conway, who was heavily financed by his billionaire father, sought to challenge Foxx in 2020 and tried to utilize the Smollett story against her, especially after a grand jury indicted the actor again. Conway heavily outspent Foxx, but she still was able to win endorsements from prominent Illinois Democrats like Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot; billionaire philanthropist George Soros also contributed $2 million to a pro-Foxx group.
The incumbent, who focused her campaign on her work reforming the state’s attorney office, won renomination 50-31, but the Chicago police union still tried to beat her in the general election by supporting Republican Pat O’Brien. Foxx, this time, prevailed 54-39, though she ran far behind Joe Biden’s 74-24 margin in Cook County. Her second term saw a repeat of many of the conflicts that defined her first: Foxx’s performance was even an issue in Chicago’s recently concluded race for mayor, with progressive Brandon Johnson praising her for being “part of the type of reform that’s needed” as centrist Paul Vallas attacked her tenure.
Foxx told the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday that she was keeping her promise to her family to serve just two terms, though she expressed her fear that her replacement might have very different priorities. “I could well imagine that there will be people who will want to play on the fears of communities that are least impacted by crime or less impacted by crime to sell a narrative, around, you know, more prosecution, more police, more punitiveness,” she said, though she also pointed to Johnson’s win earlier this month as a sign that such an effort might not succeed.
A few fellow Democrats have already started to express interest in running to succeed Foxx, including at least one who has made it clear he wants to change course. Dan Kirk, who previously served as Alvarez’s chief of staff, tells the Chicago Sun-Times, “What’s obviously clear to me is that Cook County is in desperate need of a new state’s attorney that will do the job with integrity, enforce the law, hold criminals accountable and make public safety their No. 1 priority.”
Kirk added that if he doesn’t run, it’s “imperative that it’s somebody else who believes in the direction that I just articulated.” He named former Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson and former Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin as possible alternatives. Both Ferguson, whom the paper says “is widely regarded as the best inspector general Chicago has had,” and Boykin, who lost renomination in 2018 to Johnson, confirmed they were thinking about the races.
The Sun-Times also relays that Preckwinkle has been “vetting” Risa Lanier, who is Foxx’s first assistant. Foxx used her retirement speech to praise her deputy as “my rock,” though Lanier hasn’t yet said if she’s mulling a bid.
