The 2015 aldermanic elections resulted in clear victors in Hyde Park, with Will Burns (A.B. ’95, A.M. ’98) and Leslie Hairston reelected as the aldermen for the Fourth and Fifth Wards, respectively. The fourth ward extends roughly from East 26th Street in Bronzeville to East 55th Street in Hyde Park, and the Fifth Ward stretches from East 47th Street to East 79th Street.

Burns ran on a platform of increased development, school financing reform, and anti-corruption measures. He won 55.4 percent of the vote.

Hairston, a Hyde Park native who was first elected in 1999, won the Fifth Ward elections with 52.5 percent of the vote. Her platform focused on her goal of promoting economic development. She is also in favor of City Council’s initiative to increase the minimum wage to $13 per hour by 2019. She faced five competitors in the race.

Burns’s and Hairstons’s victories were in contrast to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who only received approximately 45 percent of the vote and will face Jesús “Chuy” García, who garnered approximately 34 percent of the vote, in a runoff on April 7.