Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's Friday, March 3rd. I'm Nyla Boudou.

Here's what we're watching today. Fewer Americans are getting married. Plus, our

surging credit card debt. But first, our weekly politics state of play.

Democrats grapple with messaging on crime. That's our one big thing.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week became the first incumbent in the city to

lose re-election in decades as two other candidates are advancing to the

April runoff. Lightfoot's failure to curb Chicago's high crime rate was central

to her loss. And as Exxio's Alexi McCammon reports, the selections and early

test of how Democrats are redefining their public safety platform ahead of

2024. Hey, Alexi. Hi, how are you? Alexi, let's start with Chicago. How did

her approach to rising crime take down Mayor Lightfoot? You know, after the

pandemic, we saw spikes in violent crime across the country. Chicago has

obviously been known and made headlines for its crime rates for years and

years and years. So it's a tall order, no matter who is the mayor. But these

unique circumstances of post pandemic, plus George Floyd, where folks are

looking for police accountability, racial justice, and curbing rising crime,

it's really hard to actually deliver on the things that you promise when you're

running. And a lot of the people I talk to say that Mayor Lightfoot's downfall

or the reason that she was viewed as a failure on crime is because they said she

was moving far too incrementally. Chicago is one of the bluest cities in the

America. Does that make a difference when it's an entirely democratic city?

What the conversation looks like? That's one of the most revealing trends we've

...