CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has endorsed independent U.S. Senate candidate Willie Wilson.
The two men stood Wednesday in front of Stroger Hospital — Wilson with a mask and face shield when not speaking. The Chicago businessman recently recovered from coronavirus.
Blagojevich — with slightly less gray hair than when he was released from federal prison — said he’ll be splitting his ticket.
“I’ll be encouraging my fellow Democrats to do the same. The Democratic Party today is led by professional career politicians like Mike Madigan and Dick Durbin. They’ve been there too long,” he said.
Durbin is the incumbent senator and seeks re-election. The Republican candidate in the race is former Lake County sheriff Mark Curran.
Blagojevich had praise for Wilson, a perennial candidate for office and millionaire who is known for philanthropy.
“I don’t know much about politics, being a sharecropper and being a business person,” Wilson said of Blagojevich. “But he has a lot of knowledge about politics. And certainly I think we all can learn from him.”
Blagojevich still enjoys a measure of celebrity status, as evinced from Wednesday’s news conference. A couple of people shouted as they passed.
He said he gets more positive than negative.
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