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Ten years to the day of being elected president, former President Barack Obama is coming home to headline a get-out-the-vote rally on Sunday, pushing voters to cast ballots early or turnout on Tuesday for the Illinois Democrat ticket.
Grammy and Academy-award winning singer Common will perform at the rally, kicking off at 3 p.m. at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion, 525 S. Racine Ave.
Long lines of people lined up outside the pavilion Sunday despite the rain.
Obama will speak after gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker and his running mate Juliana Stratton take the stage. Illinois Attorney General contender Kwame Raoul; Comptroller Susana Mendoza and two U.S. House hopefuls, Sean Casten and Lauren Underwood, will also speak.
The Illinois Democratic senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, who have both been on the Illinois road for Democrats, will also be at the rally. Neither are up for re-election this year.
But Chicago Mayer Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Democratic Party chair Michael Madigan will not be at the rally, sources say.
Rauner hits the trail
Rauner is looking to boost GOP turnout with stops Sunday in Decatur; Gibson City; Morris, and St. Charles. While the Illinois Democratic ticket is united, the GOP contenders are not stumping together in the final days of the campaign.
Early voting ends Monday.
Ten years ago, Chicagoans filled Grant Park to celebrate then Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., becoming the first African American president. Today, Democrats are pushing to reclaim some of the power they lost with the surprise win of Presidential Donald Trump in 2016.
The election season is winding up with Trump and Obama holding dueling events to turn out their respective base votes.
Obama has been on the stump for embattled Democrats. Before coming home to Chicago, Obama is leading an Indiana turnout rally for Sen. Joe Donnelly, one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats. While Indiana is heavily Republican, northwest Indiana is a Democratic stronghold.
Obama, who used an absentee ballot to vote from his home in Kenwood, needs to jazz up turnout from Democratic stronghold Chicago for the statewide ticket.
Democrats concerned about Raoul
While Pritzker is ending his battle with Rauner well ahead in all polls, there is some concern over Raoul, who is locked in a struggle with GOP opponent Erika Harold.
Casten and Underwood, running in Republican suburban House districts, need massive Democratic turnout to beat their rivals. Casten is aiming to defeat Rep. Peter Roskam in the 6th District and Underwood wants to deny Rep. Randy Hultgren another term in the 14th district.
On Monday, the president will hold rallies in Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Cape Girardeau, Mo.
On Sunday, Trump hits Macon, Ga., for a 3:55 p.m. rally, speaking at about the same time Obama will be on the stage at UIC. Trump has an evening rally in Chattanooga, Tenn., and stumps in Ft. Wayne on Monday.
Take a look back at this day, 10 years ago, when Barack Obama was elected president:
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