Obama Joining Ill. Delegation at Dem National Convention

Former President Barack Obama will join several elected officials and party leaders as delegates from Illinois at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this summer, with some watchers saying he could draw attention away from his former vice president, President Joe Biden.

Barack Obama was announced as one of the delegates who will lend support, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday. Another 96 district delegates will bring the total Illinois delegation to 147.

The former president, along with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic Party Chair Lisa Hernandez, is among 31 unpledged or "automatic" delegates, which include Democrats on the state's congressional delegation, Politico reported.

For the most part, the former president has avoided political involvement after leaving office in 2017 and did not endorse Biden in 2020 until it was clear he would be the Democrat nominee.

This year, though, Democrat insiders said they expect the former president to hit the campaign trail for Biden this summer, with campaign officials saying he has indicated he will do "whatever the campaign asks" when he starts making his appearances.

There had been some talk among Republicans this year that Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, was on tap to replace Biden as the nominee, but Democrats have dismissed those rumors as a "ginned-up" conspiracy about the president.

According to a recent New York Times report, the former president has been independently advising Biden's campaign about avoiding a loss to the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in November.

Former President Bill Clinton, meanwhile, joined with Barack Obama and Biden for a political fundraiser in March in New York, where they both made the pitch to Democrat donors for him. The three also spoke together on a recent Smartless podcast.

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