Last month, Rep. Danny Davis was named the consensus choice of the Chicago Coalition for Mayor, a group of black elected officials trying to get their community to unite behind a single candidate.
This morning, Davis stood alongside nine members of that group at his campaign headquaters, and received their official endorsements.
- State Rep. Karen Yarborough
- Former Ald. Ed Smith
- State Sen. Rickey Hendon
- State Sen. Donne Trotter
- State Rep. Constance Howard
- State Rep. Annazette Collins
- Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Patricia Horton
- Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Barbara McGowan
- State Rep. LaShawn K. Ford
Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. is also endorsing Davis, but couldn’t make the meeting.
“All of these people were part of the coalition,” said Tumia Romero, Davis’s deputy campaign manager in charge of communications. “We expect more. A lot of the aldermen are in contested races, so we don’t expect any of them to make an endorsement until the runoff.”
Davis has been competing with Carol Moseley Braun for endorsements in the black community, but this would seem to give him the advantage. Moseley Braun has the support of State Reps. Marlow Colvin, Ken Dunkin and Esther Golar, State Sen. Mattie Hunter, as well as Aldermen Fredrenna Lyle and Michelle Harris.
“No coalition is completely monolithic in their thinking,” Romero said, but she pointed out that Davis was leading among African-Americans in the last Chicago Tribune poll, with 21 percent of the vote.
Politics
“The community, we’re expecting 500,000 to come out and we expect most of them to support the congressman,” Romero said.
Of course, Davis will need a multi-ethnic coalition to win the run-off. He’s working on that, too. On Tuesday, he received the endorsement of the Selfreliance Association of Ukrainian Americans. This weekend, he’ll be endorsed by members of the Indian-American community, Romero said.
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