Editor’s note: Gov. JB Pritzker and the rest of Illinois’ congressional Democrats have now endorsed Vice President Kamala as the party’s nominee for president in 2024. You can view our latest story here.
After weeks of pushing from fellow Democrats – including five of Illinois’ members of Congress – President Joe Biden on Sunday announced he will not accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for reelection.
Minutes later, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee ahead of the Democratic National Convention scheduled next month in Chicago. In a statement, Harris said she was “honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” she said, referring to a blueprint former Trump staffers have put together that outlines how to decimate federal agencies charged with regulatory responsibilities.
Top Democrats in Illinois – including Gov. JB Pritzker – offered their praises for Biden’s time in the White House, while some moved quickly to endorse Harris in Biden’s stead. But Pritzker, who has often been mentioned as a potential fill-in candidate for Biden, was not among those who immediately endorsed Harris, instead focusing on the wider goal of defeating former President Donald Trump in November.
“Donald Trump is a 34 time convicted felon, adjudicated to have committed sexual assault, a racist, homophobe and misogynist,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Trump brags about taking away a woman’s right to choose, wants to rip healthcare away from tens of millions of people, proposes economic policies that will cost the middle class thousands of dollars a year, and threatens the fundamental American ideals we hold dear. I will work every day to ensure that he does not win in November.”
Pritzker has long been a Biden campaign surrogate and staunch defender of the president, and most recently said of Biden that he’d continue to stand behind him so long as he was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
“He’s apparently going to be our nominee, he’s chosen to be our nominee,” Pritzker told reporters Thursday at a bill signing in Decatur. “And so, we’ve got to win, because the alternative is unacceptable for the country and for the future of our nation, you know, forever, really, could be altered as a result of the election of his opponent, Donald Trump.”
U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth were both complimentary of Biden’s presidency, with Duckworth claiming that “no one has done more for working Americans than Joe Biden.”
“Now the Democratic Party must unite behind a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump and keep America moving in the right direction,” Durbin said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to help that effort.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also immediately endorsed Harris after Biden’s announcement, calling it “vital” that the Democratic Party unify around Harris. Johnson will be highly visible next month as Chicago plays host to the DNC.
“Vice President Harris is the visionary leader that we need now to defeat the threat of another Trump presidency,” he said in a statement. “She has proven herself as a fearless defender of our democracy. I look forward to doing everything I can to ensure she becomes our next President.”
Prior to Biden’s announcement Sunday, Illinois U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Chicago, had called for Biden to end his reelection bid.
Of those five, only Sorensen did not immediately throw his support behind Harris on Sunday. In his statement, Sorensen thanked Biden for championing “organized labor, civil rights, technology and innovation” and for “building a strong middle class.”
In a statement, Schneider enumerated Biden’s accomplishments, including having “guided our nation through and out of an unprecedented global pandemic” and having “rescued our country from a potential despot,” referring to Trump. He also endorsed Harris.
Casten did the same, as did Quigley and Garcia.
“As we move forward, it’s crucial that we unite behind Vice President Kamala Harris and continue the progress we’ve made,” Garcia said in a statement. “Defeating the resurgence of Trumpism is essential for the future of our democracy.”
Other members of Illinois’ congressional delegation who threw their weight behind Harris on Sunday include U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, Jonathan Jackson, D-Chicago, Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, Danny Davis, D-Chicago, Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, and Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago.
“I look forward to working with her to realize a permanent ceasefire, immigration reform, and a bold agenda that centers working families,” Ramirez said on social media, hitting on themes like the conflict between Israel and Gaza and the U.S. southern border.
Those same themes are ones GOP politicians and operatives spent last week at the Republican National Convention trying to tie to Harris, including with frequent references to her being Biden’s “border czar.”
U.S. Reps. Bill Foster, D-Naperville and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg, did not immediately endorse Harris or anyone else, though Foster did write that Biden “passed the torch to the next generation to defend our democracy.” A few hours later, he endorsed Harris in a follow-up statement. Krishnamoorthi, meanwhile, said Biden’s decision to step away from running for a second term “demonstrated the true and selfless nature of a life committed to putting the country, and his fellow Americans, first.”
The Democratic Party of Illinois struck a tone of urgency in a statement from DPI chair and state Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, saying “the stakes could not be higher.”
“Donald Trump and J.D. Vance represents a return to policies that favor the wealthy, threaten our health care, and undermine our democratic institutions,” Hernandez said. “We must ensure that their regressive and divisive agenda does not prevail.
Meanwhile, the new head of the Illinois Republican Party – who’s only been on the job since Friday – took Biden’s announcement as “the culmination of years of lies from the Biden White House and Democrats shaming anyone who questioned the fitness of President Biden.”
“We as Illinois Republicans must continue to call attention to JB Pritzker’s tax-and-spend, pro-criminal agenda that drives families away from this state to protect the rest of the nation,” ILGOP chair Kathy Salvi said in a statement, poking at Pritzker’s possible presidential ambitions.
Rep. Mike Bost, R- Murphysboro, questioned Biden’s decision to remain president while dropping from the race.
“The question is, if the White House staff and congressional Democrats know he’s unfit to run a presidential campaign, then how is he fit to run the country?” he said on social media.
Editor’s note: This story and graphic have been updated to include follow-up statements and late-arriving statements from the congressional delegation.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
