Politics
What Illinois Delegates Are Expecting From Harris’ Candidacy: ‘She’s Going to Fire Us Up’
For the second time, Democrats are trying to elect a woman to the White House over former President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Delegates who’ve been in Chicago since Monday will hear Thursday night from their “joyful warrior,” Vice President Kamala Harris.
“She’s going to fire us up,” said state Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero), chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois. “She is going to assure us, and I think that’s what it is. She’s gotten to the heart and soul of people.”
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering is a “Kamala OG,” as in original backer, and has been wearing a beaded bracelet that says so. Rotering was a slated delegate for Harris’ short-lived first presidential campaign.
“I watched her as an attorney general in California when I was running for attorney general,” Rotering said. “I felt a camaraderie with her. When she moved to the Senate, as Sen. Durbin mentioned, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, she’s just bright, she’s authentic, she gets it done.”
Rotering and the other Illinois OGs got together earlier this week for what Rotering called a “celebration” to kick off the DNC.
As mayor, Rotering was walking in the 2022 Independence Day parade that was cut short by a deadly mass shooting.
If Harris and Democrats win in November, Rotering said she wants them to take action on gun violence. A ban on combat-style weapons, background checks, digital registration — Rotering said there’s a lot to be done. She also said it comes down to the federal government stepping up and taking a coordinated approach.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, head of the Cook County Democratic Party, said Republicans have wrongly made Chicago their “whipping boy.”
Under a Harris presidency, Preckwinkle said, the city and county will be treated fairly.
“Kamala Harris has talked about the importance of building a supply of affordable housing that many of our families are struggling to pay their rent or looking toward home ownership and finding that out of reach — (it’s a) really important initiative,” Preckwinkle said. “Invest in more public education across the country, … especially in a city, in Chicago, where our public schools have been underfunded for as long as I’ve lived here.”
There’s next to no doubt that Harris will win in Illinois, so Preckwinkle said the county party is already organizing Democrats to spend weekends campaigning in battleground states for Harris.
This will be the first time Illinois’ youngest delegate, 19-year-old college student Claire Satkiewicz, originally of Northbrook, will be voting for anyone. She said as a mixed-race woman (Satkiewicz’s mom is an immigrant from China), she’s excited it’ll be for Harris.
“I’ve never really seen myself represented in that way before,” Satkiewicz said. “And I heard this quote the other day — it was ‘be the representation you wish you had when you were younger,’ and I see that in Kamala Harris right now and I hope that I can be that for someone later in my life and later in my career.”
Before the DNC culminates with Harris’ speech and a massive red, white and blue balloon drop Thursday night, delegates will hear from U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) as well as former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois who is also campaigning for Harris.
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
