As DNC opens in Chicago, state leaders tout Illinois as a ‘model of Democratic success’
CHICAGO – In announcing Chicago would host of the 2024 Democratic National Convention more than a year ago, national party leaders referred to Illinois as a key part of the “blue wall” of Midwestern states crucial to President Joe Biden’s 2020 election.
Instead of choosing a venue in a swing state, as they had done for the last two decades, Democrats selected a city and state long dominated by Democratic politics and policies. And while Illinois and Chicago in particular have become conservative media shorthand for out-of-control progressive government, Illinois Democrats on Monday morning sought to cast their brand of politics as an exemplar for the nation.
Gov. JB Pritzker, who was instrumental in landing the DNC in Chicago, kicked off the Illinois delegation’s Monday breakfast at a downtown hotel by thanking elected Democrats in the room “for the work that you’ve done to make this the greatest Democratic Party that Illinois has ever had and in the entire country.”
Before making a quick exit to speak to delegates at two other states’ Democratic Party breakfasts, Pritzker rattled off a litany of legislation passed during his 5 ½-year tenure as governor so far. The governor acknowledged the Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly that helped pass items ranging from a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour starting next year to a $10 million state investment to pay off a projected $1 billion in medical debt for low-income Illinoisans.
Republicans, he reminded the group, “voted against all of that.”
“It’s almost as if Republicans don’t want working families to succeed,” Pritzker said, pivoting to the attack dog role he’s been rehearsing for months and criticizing the GOP for being “obsessed with other things…like explaining away Donald Trump’s 34 felony fraud convictions.”
But instead of focusing on Trump and other Republicans on Monday, Democrats tried to keep the spotlight on their positive vision for what their party can accomplish.
“This convention is our opportunity to share our successes, to set the agenda, and to show the entire country why Illinois is leading the way,” DNC Host Committee Executive Director Christy George, who most recently worked in Pritzker’s office on budget and economic issues, told the breakfast crowd.
State Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, who serves as chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, echoed those sentiments as she called Illinois “a model of Democratic success” and “the beacon of progress in the Midwest.”