The president of the Illinois Senate said he’s backing the nation’s leader as the beleaguered Joe Biden continues his bid for his second term in office.
“This is a time of great tumult and uncertainty as to the fate of our democracy,” said Don Harmon, Illinois’ senate president and representative of the 39th district.
“We are all particularly unsettled by what’s happening at the top of the ticket right now. My view is really quite simple: Joe Biden is our nominee, and I am going to do whatever is required to beat Donald Trump,” Harmon added. “I think that’s probably the mindset of most of our delegation in Congress.”
His remarks came at the July 13 meeting for the Democratic Party of Oak Park.
Representative La Shawn Ford also has publicly said that he backs Biden.
“I would trust Biden’s inner circle and Biden’s judgment as to whether or not he should keep going,” Ford told The Atlantic. “He will do what’s best for the nation. If that means he’s going to step down and allow his VP to step up, then we shall see.”
Attendees at the July 13 meeting rallied around the president.
“We are and will be and have to be unified going forward in all ways,” said Eileen Lynch, committeewoman for the Democratic Party of Oak Park. “We are marching on to victory in November, without a doubt. The Biden-Harris administration has a tremendous record of achievement.”
Lynch cited Biden’s increased investment in working families through the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. She also said the administration created 11 million jobs and relieved 40 million people of their student debt.
“The Biden-Harris administration enacted the most significant federal gun violence prevention measure in nearly 30 years,” Lynch added.
“We are on the right side of history in the Democratic Party,” Lynch said. “We are on the right side of the issues: Increasing access to the ballot for all voters, standing up for reproductive freedom for women, climate action, and again, gun violence prevention.”
Lynch closed the Democratic Party of Oak Park’s meeting by asking for volunteers to help with phone banks, out-of-state canvassing and sending out 60,000 postcards, mostly to swing states, by packaging them in the Burr Ridge office or picking them up and mailing them after buying postage.
The meeting took place the morning of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
Though the shooting hadn’t happened yet, Harmon later commented on the assassination attempt.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Harmon told Growing Community Media, parent company of Forest Park Review. “I wish the former president a swift recovery, and my sympathy goes out to those injured and the family and friends of the person killed in this senseless tragedy.”
It remains unclear how the assassination attempt will affect the presidential election in November or the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
