Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel not seeking election to third term

Chicago’s two-term Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel — a controversial straight shooter known for foul language during two stints in the White House and the target of some blame for spiking rates of gun violence in the nation’s third largest city — unexpectedly announced Tuesday that he will not be running for re-election.

The mayor revealed at a press conference he would be stepping down from his post after serving since 2011. The “time has come to make another choice,” he said, taking no questions from reporters.

Emanuel was forced into a runoff in his first bid for re-election, in 2015, ultimately winning nearly 56% of the vote in that one-on-one contest with rival Jesús “Chuy” Garcia.

The city’s next mayoral election is set for February 2019.

Before returning home to lead Chicago, where he was born in 1959, Emanuel was President Obama’s first chief of staff. He served in the Clinton White House and later represented the city’s north and northwest sides and a number of inner-ring suburbs in Congress.

“Whatever he chooses to do next, I know he’ll continue to make a positive difference, just as he has throughout his career in public service,” Obama said in a tweeted statement.

Emanuel recently led Chicago’s effort to secure a commitment from Elon Musk’s the Boring Co. to finance, build and operate a 12-minute downtown–to–O’Hare Airport express train service expected to open in 2022. The mayor’s team championed the draw for international business of the Tesla CEO’s TSLA, -2.73% proposed underground pod system even as the futuristic transit system raised concerns among residents, with Chicago operating under a steep debt burden and a pension system teetering on crisis, while school closings have irked neighborhood groups and the teachers union.

But an Emanuel-led Chicago also won a spot on the shortlist of potential locations for a second Amazon AMZN, -1.83% headquarters.

Emanuel’s name was, particularly among critics, permanently attached to a comment he made at a Wall Street Journal conference in 2008 about not letting a crisis go to waste. He was speaking days after Obama won the presidential election and in the thick of the financial crisis. Republicans routinely dusted off a shorthand version of that remark, even as fact-checking organizations have emphasized the context around the statement, noting that Emanuel had specifically urged addressing longstanding problems with “ideas from both parties” when a crisis presents the opportunity.

The surprise re-election withdrawal changes the complexion of the upcoming race and left the city’s political analysts scrambling to handicap a front runner among 12 candidates. That list includes former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who was forced out by Emanuel in the wake of the release of controversial video showing the fatal police shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald. The case led to a federal civil-rights investigation into the police department and accusations of a City Hall cover-up.

The race is sure to be shaped by crime and economic development. The Emanuel administration has faced ongoing criticism for spikes in gun violence — including a recent weekend in which 64 people were shot, 12 of them fatally.

Emanuel, when asked Tuesday, did not answer whether he would support a specific candidate.