Durbin Declines to Endorse Pritzker for VP
Senator Dick Durbin speaks to reporters Monday in Chicago. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
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Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said Monday he waited until Monday morning to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the party’s presidential nomination out of deference to President Biden.
At an unrelated news conference Monday, Durbin said “Joe Biden has been my friend for 30 years, and I thought (Sunday) was his day.”
Durbin said the Vice President called him Sunday night and asked for his endorsement. He said he made it clear “that I was going to endorse her.”
Durbin said Democrats can avoid significant infighting by choosing a ticket before next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“We have to get our act together, and the first thing we’re going to face is right here in Chicago,” he said. “What’s going to happen at the convention now that we’re choosing another nominee? I want to make sure that this is done fairly, openly, but it’s done in a timely fashion.”
Durbin, though, did not explicitly endorse Governor JB Pritzker for Vice President, claiming “I have too many friends who are interested.”
It’s been a poorly kept secret in Democratic politics in recent years that Pritzker and Durbin are engaged in a bit of a feud. Some of the tensions bubbled over during a 2022 battle for control of the Democratic Party of Illinois, which Pritzker eventually won.
Durbin did publicly praise Pritzker Monday as “an extraordinarily effective governor” who “has a lot to offer” as Vice President.
But, Durbin didn’t go any farther in support of Pritzker.
“I think there’s a substantially long list of possibilities,” he said.