Party leaders voted 51-5 to support elected school board legislation during a meeting of the Cook County Democratic Party’s Central Committee.

Dozens of top Cook County Democratic Party officials threw their support on Wednesday behind a legislative effort to democratize Chicago’s school board, giving the effort a powerful symbolic boost and handing a defeat to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The county party’s Central Committee voted 51-5 on Wednesday to endorse a resolution sponsored by 35^th Ward Committeeperson Anthony Quezada voicing the party’s official support for an Illinois House of Representatives bill (HB2908) that would end Lightfoot’s power to hand-pick members of the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education. The House bill and its Senate counterpart — also named in the party resolution — would direct the state legislature to draw 20 districts whose voters would populate the board.