Illinois's 1st congressional district election, 2000
Encyclopedia
The 2000 United States House of Representatives election for the 1st district in Illinois took place on November 7, 2000. While incumbent
Democratic
Representative Bobby Rush
handily defeated his Republican
opponent, Raymond Wardingley, this race is noteworthy for the primary challenge Rush survived from future Senator
and President
Barack Obama
.
Illinois's 1st congressional district is a minority-majority district and has a higher percentage of African American
(65 percent) than any other congressional district
in the nation. It is a working class district, and currently has a Cook PVI
of D+35, making it one of the most Democratic districts in the country.
. Rush served as an alderman
, and he was first elected to represent this district in 1992. Rush ran for Mayor of Chicago
against Richard Daley
in 1999 and lost, receiving only 28% of the vote, perhaps making him appear electorally vulnerable.
and a two-term state Senator
. Though friends, including Terry Link
, his colleague in the Illinois Senate, warned Obama against challenging Rush, as there was no obvious reason to displace him to the voters, Obama ran anyway, due to his frustration with what he claimed was Republican obstructionism in the Illinois Legislature and the feeling Rush wasn't representing the district as well as he could.
Early polling showed Rush’s name recognition started off at 90 percent, while Obama’s at 11. Rush had 70 percent approval, while Obama had 8 percent approval. In the head to head matchup, forty-seven percent of the people polled favored Mr. Rush, 10 percent favored Mr. Obama and 5 percent supported Donne Trotter
, who is also African American. Most of Obama's support came from Whites.
In mid-October, Rush’s son, Huey, was murdered, leading Obama to put his campaign on hold. Governor
George Ryan
called the Illinois Legislature to a special session to re-enact a package of gun-safety bills, a pet issue of Rush's, which had been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. Obama supported the package, but the session dragged on towards Christmas. Obama annually spends the Christmas vacation in Hawaii
with his family visiting his grandmother, who raised him. Obama left Illinois, expecting the session would continue into January. However, a crucial vote took place earlier than expected, failing by five votes with Obama and others absent. Obama came under fire for missing the vote, though he said he would have flown back sooner, but his 18-month-old daughter was sick.
As Obama lived in Hyde Park
, a more affluent neighborhood with a higher percentage of White voters than the rest of the district, the narrative of the race became "the Black Panther against the professor" Obama frequently came off as uptight. Rush criticized Obama, saying "Barack Obama went to Harvard and became an educated fool. We’re not impressed with these folks with these Eastern elite degrees. Barack is a person who read about the civil-rights protests and thinks he knows all about it." Trotter said "Barack is viewed in part to be the white man in blackface in our community." Many, including local officials, President Bill Clinton
, and Vice President Al Gore
, who would be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, endorsed Rush.
Obama raised enough money to remain competitive with Rush. However, he didn't connect with the working class African Americans of the district, nor did he provide a convincing reason for them to vote against Rush. Obama lost the primary election, held on March 21, 2000, by a 2-to-1 margin.
Obama later wrote: “Less than halfway into the campaign, I knew in my bones that I was going to lose. Each morning from that point forward I awoke with a vague sense of dread, realizing that I would have to spend the day smiling and shaking hands and pretending that everything was going according to plan.”
and 2008
. Obama was seen as a stiff policy wonk, and he used the experience to hone his ability to connect with voters. According to Chicago City Council
member Toni Preckwinkle
, an early Obama supporter, Obama "took a hard look at himself after that campaign and became a much better campaigner, more at ease on the campaign trail." Also, Obama increased his focus on the Illinois Senate, improving his legislative accomplishments.
In 2004, Obama was the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. After his speech, political pundits speculated about his future as a possible presidential candidate. After being elected to the United States Senate that year, and amid much speculation in the media regarding his future plans, Obama announced that he would seek the 2008 democratic presidential nomination in February 2007 and went on to defeat Hillary Clinton in one of the closest presidential nomination races in American history. He then defeated fellow senator John McCain
in the general election to become the first African American to be elected President of the United States.
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Representative Bobby Rush
Bobby Rush
Bobby Lee Rush is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district is located principally on the South Side of Chicago. It is a minority-majority district and has a higher percentage of African Americans than any other congressional district in...
handily defeated his Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
opponent, Raymond Wardingley, this race is noteworthy for the primary challenge Rush survived from future Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
and President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
The district
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
(65 percent) than any other congressional district
Congressional district
A congressional district is “a geographical division of a state from which one member of the House of Representatives is elected.”Congressional Districts are made up of three main components, a representative, constituents, and the specific land area that both the representative and the...
in the nation. It is a working class district, and currently has a Cook PVI
Cook Partisan Voting Index
The Cook Partisan Voting Index , sometimes referred to as simply the Partisan Voting Index , is a measurement of how strongly an American congressional district or state leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole...
of D+35, making it one of the most Democratic districts in the country.
Bobby Rush
Rush was involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He was a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a former member and founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther PartyBlack Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
. Rush served as an alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
, and he was first elected to represent this district in 1992. Rush ran for Mayor of Chicago
Mayor of Chicago
The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.-Appointment...
against Richard Daley
Richard Daley
Richard Daley may refer to:*Richard J. Daley , Mayor of Chicago , father of Richard M. Daley*Richard M. Daley , Mayor of Chicago , son of Richard J. Daley...
in 1999 and lost, receiving only 28% of the vote, perhaps making him appear electorally vulnerable.
Barack Obama
Obama, at age 38, was a lecturer at the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and a two-term state Senator
Illinois Senate
The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the state of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. The Illinois Senate is made up of 59 senators elected from...
. Though friends, including Terry Link
Terry Link
Terry Link is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 30th District since 1997. He is also the Chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party...
, his colleague in the Illinois Senate, warned Obama against challenging Rush, as there was no obvious reason to displace him to the voters, Obama ran anyway, due to his frustration with what he claimed was Republican obstructionism in the Illinois Legislature and the feeling Rush wasn't representing the district as well as he could.
Campaign
Obama entered the race in late September 1999, only six months before the primary, stating Rush represented “a politics that is rooted in the past, a reactive politics that isn’t good at coming up with concrete solutions”, while promising to build consensus and lead coalitions involving people outside of the black community to reduce crime, improve health care coverage, promote economic development and expand educational opportunitiesEarly polling showed Rush’s name recognition started off at 90 percent, while Obama’s at 11. Rush had 70 percent approval, while Obama had 8 percent approval. In the head to head matchup, forty-seven percent of the people polled favored Mr. Rush, 10 percent favored Mr. Obama and 5 percent supported Donne Trotter
Donne Trotter
Donne Trotter is a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 17th district since 1993. His district includes the South side of Chicago and portions of the south suburbs...
, who is also African American. Most of Obama's support came from Whites.
In mid-October, Rush’s son, Huey, was murdered, leading Obama to put his campaign on hold. Governor
Governor of Illinois
The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
George Ryan
George Ryan
George Homer Ryan, Sr. was the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1999 until 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. Ryan became nationally known when in 2000 he imposed a moratorium on executions and "raised the national debate on capital punishment"...
called the Illinois Legislature to a special session to re-enact a package of gun-safety bills, a pet issue of Rush's, which had been overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. Obama supported the package, but the session dragged on towards Christmas. Obama annually spends the Christmas vacation in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
with his family visiting his grandmother, who raised him. Obama left Illinois, expecting the session would continue into January. However, a crucial vote took place earlier than expected, failing by five votes with Obama and others absent. Obama came under fire for missing the vote, though he said he would have flown back sooner, but his 18-month-old daughter was sick.
As Obama lived in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Chicago
Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...
, a more affluent neighborhood with a higher percentage of White voters than the rest of the district, the narrative of the race became "the Black Panther against the professor" Obama frequently came off as uptight. Rush criticized Obama, saying "Barack Obama went to Harvard and became an educated fool. We’re not impressed with these folks with these Eastern elite degrees. Barack is a person who read about the civil-rights protests and thinks he knows all about it." Trotter said "Barack is viewed in part to be the white man in blackface in our community." Many, including local officials, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, and Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, who would be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, endorsed Rush.
Obama raised enough money to remain competitive with Rush. However, he didn't connect with the working class African Americans of the district, nor did he provide a convincing reason for them to vote against Rush. Obama lost the primary election, held on March 21, 2000, by a 2-to-1 margin.
Obama later wrote: “Less than halfway into the campaign, I knew in my bones that I was going to lose. Each morning from that point forward I awoke with a vague sense of dread, realizing that I would have to spend the day smiling and shaking hands and pretending that everything was going according to plan.”
Primary Election
The primary election was held on March 21, 2000.General Election
Aftermath
Obama later said he got “my rear end handed to me” in his loss to Rush, and acknowledged his own hubris. However, many analysts believe that Obama's loss helped him to learn from his mistakes, which enabled him to run more successful campaigns in 2004United States Senate election in Illinois, 2004
The 2004 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald decided to retire after one term. The Democratic and Republican primary elections were held in March, which included a total of 15 candidates who combined to spend a...
and 2008
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
. Obama was seen as a stiff policy wonk, and he used the experience to hone his ability to connect with voters. According to Chicago City Council
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms...
member Toni Preckwinkle
Toni Preckwinkle
Toni Reed Preckwinkle is the current Cook County Board President and a former alderman in the Chicago City Council representing Chicago's 4th ward in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was elected on November 2, 2010, as president of the Cook County Board...
, an early Obama supporter, Obama "took a hard look at himself after that campaign and became a much better campaigner, more at ease on the campaign trail." Also, Obama increased his focus on the Illinois Senate, improving his legislative accomplishments.
In 2004, Obama was the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. After his speech, political pundits speculated about his future as a possible presidential candidate. After being elected to the United States Senate that year, and amid much speculation in the media regarding his future plans, Obama announced that he would seek the 2008 democratic presidential nomination in February 2007 and went on to defeat Hillary Clinton in one of the closest presidential nomination races in American history. He then defeated fellow senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
in the general election to become the first African American to be elected President of the United States.