Illinois politicians have prepared a warm welcome for Joe Biden ahead of the March 17 primary, and he seems poised to win a significant portion of the African-American vote after garnering support from black lawmakers.
Voters in 10 states chose the former vice president as their candidate in a stunning comeback on Super Tuesday against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the first Thai American woman elected to Congress, endorsed Biden this week, though Gov. J.B. Pritzker has stayed away from supporting a candidate.
Some pundits speculate Biden could choose Duckworth as his running mate should he go on to win the nomination. Biden said at an Iowa event in January there's "at least nine women I can think of who are fully capable of being president."
Downstate Democrats, including state Sen. Christopher Belt, D-Cahokia, state Rep. LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis, and state Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, have endorsed Biden, who plans to visit St. Louis on Saturday.
Belt and Greenwood both represent predominantly black portions of the metro-east. Biden performs well among black voters and should do well in the St. Louis region, said Justin Idelberg, a black voter engagement organizer.
"It's like going over to your grandma's house and looking at the same Life magazines that have been there forever," Idelberg said. "They're stuck on (Biden). They're thinking, 'If he were chosen by Obama, he'd have to be a good guy."
But Hilary Scott-Ogunrinde, a civic ministry leader in East St. Louis, said Biden shouldn't take black voters for granted. Organizers with United Congregations of Metro East invited Biden and Sanders to a public forum on Sunday at Macedonia Baptist Church, but Scott-Ogunrinde said neither agreed to attend or visit though "it's a 10-minute drive" from Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis, where Biden will be on Saturday.
"When we've created a ripe opportunity to demonstrate that you value our opinion, value our vote," Scott-Ogunrinde said, "to be this close and to not speak to a population that's ready and wanting your attention ... speaks to how valuable we are to you."
"The opinions of people of color or black voters are as diverse as our melanin, and it would be dangerously presumptuous of any candidate to believe we're going to walk into the polls and punch their number without having a conversation with us first," Scott-Ogunrinde added.
The former vice president will send "a surrogate from his campaign" to represent him at the event, the interfaith organization announced this week.
Biden has spent next to nothing on television ads in the St. Louis region since his race began _ $24,000, according to advertising planning agency Medium Buying. Prior to Super Tuesday, he'd invested just $9,000. Further south, he spent $17,000 on commercials reaching viewers in southeastern Illinois.
Sanders held sway over downstate university students in 2016, and hopes to do it again. He has an office in Carbondale, home of Southern Illinois University. Sanders has put $73,000 into St. Louis region advertising since his campaign started, up from $45,000 before Super Tuesday. Stations in southeastern Illinois have aired $31,000 worth of Sanders commercials.
A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll put Sanders at the head of the pack with 23% of Southern Illinois voters saying they'd choose him. Biden came in fourth place behind former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who have both dropped out of the race.
