*Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx won’t run for re-election next year, she confirmed Tuesday.
“I leave now with my head held high, with my heart full,” Foxx said in a speech during a luncheon at the City Club of Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
“I am announcing today that, at the conclusion of my term in November of 2024, I will be stepping down as State’s Attorney. I will not be on next year’s ballot by my choice,” Foxx said during the luncheon.
Foxx said she informed Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson of her decision a day prior to her public announcement.
READ MORE: Chicago Prosecutor Kim Foxx Drops 4 Sex Abuse Cases Against R. Kelly | VIDEO
“I told Mayor-elect Johnson as a Black man in leadership that his role would be very difficult,” Foxx said. “You have to keep going. But know what’s coming. His responsibility is to do the work with the full knowledge that it’s not going to be fair … but he has a job to do and elevate the voices of the people who put him there.”
Foxx became the first Black woman to lead the office in 2016. She served more than six years and faced endless attacks from critics who blamed her for increased crime in the city. She also caught heat for her handling of the controversial cases involving Jussie Smollett and R. Kelly.
Earlier this year, she reportedly dropped four sex abuse cases against R. Kelly. Her office also dismissed the original charges against Smollett amid his hate crime hoax scandal in the city.
In a statement, Johnson said Foxx has been instrumental “in overturning nearly 200 wrongful convictions, expunging more than 15,000 cannabis crimes and bringing equity to a criminal justice system that has long disenfranchised people and communities of color.”
In her speech Tuesday, Foxx addressed the hate she received over Smollet’s case.
“They asked me over and over, ‘state’s attorney, do you have any regrets about the Class 4, nonviolent felony against a D-list actor,’” she said sarcastically, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I mean, I’m not here to judge where we put our priorities,” she said. “But the fact that I’ve been asked, and more ink has been spilled by editorial pages, newspapers, reporters, that … my obituary will mention Jussie Smollett makes me mad.”
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