Biden takes Illinois primary
Gov. Pritzker rebuffs Chicago, critics who called for delay amid coronavirus outbreak
Former Vice President Joe Biden appears headed for the Democratic presidential nomination. (Flickr/Gage Skidmore)
By Ted Cox
Former Vice President Joe Biden won the Illinois primary Tuesday, firming his hold on the Democratic nomination to face off against President Trump in the fall.
According to Politico, the Associated Press called the race at about 7:30 p.m., quickly followed by WGN-TV Channel 9 in Chicago. At the time, with a sliver of the vote counted, Biden nevertheless led U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont by 61 percent to 28 percent. Later, with 89 percent of precincts reporting, Biden led with 59 percent of the vote to 36 percent for Sanders.
As Biden won in Florida and Arizona as well, national media outlets reported that he crossed the halfway point on the way to the 1,991 delegates needed to be nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
Biden spoke from his home in Delaware, saying, “Our campaign has had a very good night. We moved closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination for president, and we’re doing it by building a broad coalition that we need to win in November.”
Biden spoke of the similarity between himself and Sanders on issues like health care, income inequality, and climate change. “Sen. Sanders and his supporters have brought a remarkable passion and tenacity to these issues,” he said, “and together they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country.” He spoke directly to Sanders’s supporters, especially young voters, in adding, “I hear you.”
Biden closed by speaking of COVID-19 as the larger concern for everyone. “It’s at moments like these that we realize we need to put politics aside and work together as Americans,” he said. “The coronavirus does’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican.”
Sanders spoke earlier in the evening, mainly on the coronavirus as a national crisis.
Sanders made a campaign appearance in Chicago a year ago, followed with a more recent rally at Chicago’s Grant Park before the crackdown on public events prompted by the coronavirus outbreak. Biden never made a real campaign appearance in Illinois this year, but Democrats lined up behind him after he broke through in South Carolina ahead of Super Tuesday, when he seized hold of the delegate lead.
The vote went on in spite of 11th-hour concerns raised by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, who according to Gov. Pritzker called for the election to be conducted entirely by mail last week. But, as Pritzker stated Tuesday at his daily briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic, he did not have the legal authority as governor to make such a decision.
As a result, more than 165,000 mail-in ballots were submitted, and election officials cautioned that close races may not be determined for days as local boards wait for those legal ballots postmarked by Tuesday to arrive and be counted.
There was also chaos in some precincts in Chicago and the suburbs as election judges spooked by the coronavirus spread failed to show up. That caused long lines or long drives to other polling places, no doubt discouraging some voters, but the primary went on as mandated by law.
The Biden victory, however, seemed clear cut.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx held off a challenge in the Democratic primary, as runner-up Bill Conway conceded about 9:30 p.m. with Foxx leading the four-way race with a plurality of just under 50 percent.
In the 3rd Congressional District, Marie Newman held a narrow lead late in the evening in her second bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary, but the Lipinski campaign was hanging on to see those mail-in ballots. The Associated Press, however, called it for Newman shortly after 11 p.m. On the Republican side, neo-Nazi Arthur Jones ran third behind Mike Fricilone with just over 10 percent of the vote. Fricilone, who garnered 59 percent of the vote in a three-person race, will face off against Newman in the fall.
In other down-ballot races, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan won the Democratic primary in the 13th Congressional District and will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis in a rematch from 2018. On the Republican side, former gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives won in the 6th Congressional District and will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Sean Casten.
In the 15th District, where U.S. Rep. John Shimkus is retiring, Erika Weaver won the Democratic nomination and Mary Miller the Republican nod, both with solid majorities in four-person races, and will meet head to head in November.