{"id":20087,"date":"2026-03-16T19:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/jesse-jacksons-family-withdraws-posthumous-endorsement-in-illinois-senate-primary\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:47:11","slug":"jesse-jacksons-family-withdraws-posthumous-endorsement-in-illinois-senate-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/jesse-jacksons-family-withdraws-posthumous-endorsement-in-illinois-senate-primary\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Jackson\u2019s family withdraws posthumous endorsement in Illinois Senate primary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The family of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson walked back a posthumous endorsement of Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton\u2019s Senate campaign on Monday, after the family said Jackson\u2019s endorsements for Tuesday\u2019s primaries were not completed before his death.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Stratton\u2019s campaign touted an endorsement from Jackson, who died last month, and his son Yusef. The announcement came after Stratton saw Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Jackson family\u2019s organziation, passing out sample ballots \u2014 which were also obtained by Blue Light News<\/u><\/a> \u2014 that recommended Stratton.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Jackson\u2019s] example has been a north star for me, and I\u2019m deeply honored to have received his trust, support, and endorsement before his passing,\u201d Stratton said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, Yusef Jackson, who is the organization’s COO, said the draft sample ballot was \u201creleased without authorization\u201d and that the Jackson family and Rainbow PUSH Coalition are not making political endorsements this cycle.<\/p>\n

His father \u201cbegan the process of reviewing candidates and identifying those he intended to support in the upcoming primary election,\u201d Yusef Jackson said in the statement. \u201cHowever, given his passing just over a month ago, the process was never fully completed. Out of respect for my father, we decided not to publicly release his intended selections given the process had not been finalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stratton campaign said on Monday that officials with Rainbow PUSH Coalition said she had been endorsed by Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuliana spoke on Saturday at Rainbow PUSH for a Women\u2019s History Month event and officials told her she received the endorsements. Organizers shared the sample election ballot that was already being distributed and encouraged her to share the news,\u201d the Stratton campaign said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The endorsement mix-up draws further scrutiny on the split among Black Democrats in Illinois between Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly <\/a>(D-Ill.), who are both seeking to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin<\/a>. Some Democrats in the state have expressed concern that Stratton and Kelly could split the vote<\/u><\/a> in Tuesday\u2019s primary, creating a path for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi<\/a> (D-Ill.) to win the nomination.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jonathan Jackson<\/a> (D-Ill.) told Blue Light News prior to the family\u2019s statement<\/u><\/a> that his father \u201cnever got in on Black-on-Black fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Jackson added that the races the late Jesse Jackson \u201cwas excited about\u201d were himself and former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.\u2019s comeback bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t do that. He was always pushing the community forward,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThis smells of desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The family of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson walked back a posthumous endorsement of Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton\u2019s Senate campaign on Monday, after the family said Jackson\u2019s endorsements for Tuesday\u2019s primaries were not completed before his death. On Saturday, Stratton\u2019s campaign touted an endorsement from Jackson, who died last month, and his son Yusef. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}