AUSTIN — The West Side’s 29th Ward race is too close to call — with just 12 votes separating incumbent Ald. Chris Taliaferro and challenger CB Johnson in early results.
With 23 of 24 precincts reporting Tuesday night, Taliaferro had 50.9 percent of the vote to 49 percent for challenger CB Johnson. The race could come down to mail-in ballots, meaning it could take weeks to determine the winner.
Johnson was at times ahead of Taliaferro in the early results, with the two swapping places.
The ward includes parts of Austin, Belmont Cragin, Galewood, Dunning and Montclare.
Taliaferro faced criticism from challengers that he wasn’t committed to the position, after running an unsuccessful bid for a Cook County judge post in June.
And Johnson — who had made two unsuccessful bids for the office — picked up an early endorsement from Rep. Danny Davis, who had previously represented the ward for over a decade. Johnson, a local businessman, has long run a center designed to help people recover from drug abuse.
In the weeks leading up to the runoff election, Taliaferro received endorsement boosts from former Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson and community activist Corey Dooley, who received about 9 percent of the vote in the February election for the 29th Ward.
Taliaferro previously said he was shifting his focus to public safety as his “No. 1 priority” after hearing voters voice it as their top concern in the Feb. 28 election.
The incumbent said he supports Brandon Johnson’s idea to hire and promote 200 detective to deter crime by solving more cases. Preventing crime also requires a “holistic approach” and addressing root causes through actions like “providing jobs and mental health resources,” Taliaferro previously said.
Taliaferro was a marine sergeant and a 23-year veteran of the Police Department before first winning the office in 2015.