Jesse Jackson posthumously spurs ‘commotion’ in key Senate race

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton on Saturday touted the Senate endorsement by the late Rev. Jesse Jackson that she said she had just been informed she had received, days before Illinois Democrats chose their nominee to succeed outgoing Sen. Dick Durbin.

But instead, the announcement turned into a back-and-forth saga. Jackson’s band, Rainbow PUSH, and his son, Yusef, later said that the endorsement, a few weeks after Jackson’s death, was not intended to be public and did not have final approval. He attributed the mix-up to a staff member.

That was after another son, Rep. Jonathan Jackson, raised eyebrows when he doubted his support in comments to Politico, saying, “He wouldn’t do that…It smacks of desperation.” »

Contacted by NBC News Monday evening, Rep. Jackson walked back those remarks, saying, “I may have exaggerated that,” adding that he “wished him well.”

“I wish them all well,” Jackson said, noting that he has tried to stay out of the Senate race, which includes two of his House colleagues, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly. “I worked with Raja and Robin and it’s a very competitive race.”

Kelly said in an interview with NBC Chicago on Monday that Jackson’s widow, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson, called her to apologize after the draft ballot was released.

Securing the support of Jesse Jackson had long had the potential to strengthen candidates in Chicago, in the intense fight for the city’s coveted black vote. Stratton is in a bitter fight with Krishnamoorthi and Kelly, who, like Stratton, is black and has tried to woo the voting bloc.

In a statement Monday evening, Yusef Jackson highlighted the controversy surrounding his late father’s views on the Senate race and said he wanted the speech to get back to the real issues before voters.

“Over the past 48 hours, there has been a lot of unrest over the person my father, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., supported before his passing a little over a month ago,” Yusef Jackson wrote in a statement sent from his late father’s X account. “Out of respect for my father, we decided not to make his planned selections public as the process was not finalized.

“However, due to an internal communications issue, a draft ballot was posted by a staff member who did not have authorization,” » the statement continued. “This unintentional error sparked an unexpected controversy, which unfortunately revolved around one candidate in particular.”

Yusef Jackson then declared that he wanted to be “very clear”.

“We have not withdrawn our support from any specific candidate,” he wrote. “Instead, we made clear that the document shared this weekend was not final,” and he added that the organization would not “confirm or issue any policy endorsements during this cycle.”

In a statement, Stratton said Rainbow PUSH Coalition organizers informed her of their support while she was speaking at the organization for a Women’s History Month event.

“Organizers shared a sample ballot that was already distributed and encouraged her to share the news,” the campaign said in a statement.

The sample ballot, reviewed by NBC News, lists dozens of candidates supported in statewide and local races.

Before Jackson’s storm, Stratton had shaken things up in the Senate race by airing a radio ad featuring a former Barack Obama backer. Obama had supported Stratton years earlier in her run for state lawmaker.

“Having a late announcement from Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton provide a measure of Barack Obama’s standing in his home state of Illinois implies his support in the three-way race for U.S. Senate. But he didn’t support ANY of the candidates,” David Axelrod, Obama’s former senior strategist, wrote in a social media post.