A majority of southwest Illinois voters wanted Trump to win. Will they accept Biden?
Local Republican leader Tom McRae knows increasingly conservative metro-east voters still have some “tough questions” about the presidential election, but he believes they will eventually accept whichever man officially becomes the next president.
“It’s going to take time to sort it all out, but I think people will accept it,” said McRae, a Madison County Board member from Bethalto who served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in August. “I think our country is resilient, and I think whatever the outcome is, people should accept it because it’s a big part of our democracy.”
Former Vice President Joseph Biden claimed victory Saturday after The Associated Press said he won 290 electoral votes as of 1 p.m. He needed 270 to win.
That’s not the outcome most metro-east voters were hoping for, according to unofficial election results from Nov. 3. In most southwestern Illinois counties, a majority of votes cast for president went to Trump.
St. Clair County was the only county in the region where more voters selected Biden. Madison, Clinton, Monroe, Randolph, Bond and Washington counties all favored Trump.
Some areas of a largely red Madison County supported Biden, including in parts of Granite City and Collinsville, most of Edwardsville and Alton, and in all seven precincts in the small community of Venice.
But for the most part, formerly Democratic voters in southwestern Illinois feel their values align more with the GOP, said McRae, who was recently elected Madison County circuit clerk.
Trump gained followers in traditionally left-leaning cities such as Granite City, home to a U.S. Steel mill, when voters there felt he went to bat for them on international trade, McRae said. Trump visited the steel mill in 2018.
Fears of civil unrest and that Democrats wanted to defund police departments may have alienated metro-east voters, McRae added.
“The average person doesn’t identify with that and that party anymore,” McRae said.
Trump was not planning to concede, according to a statement from the president.
“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed,” Trump said. “The simple fact is this election is far from over.”
Official results of the election will not be certified for weeks, and Biden’s claim to the presidency is expected to be met with legal challenges and recounts.
Statements from Democratic leaders, including Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, focused on the future.
“In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America. With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together,” Biden said.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois congratulated Biden and Harris, and called for unity.
“The last four years did not break America, but revealed what was already broken,” Durbin said. “Now we must come together to heal some of the terrible wounds of our past, and together, create a better, more just, more prosperous America — not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren.”
While metro-east voters who favored Trump might be disappointed, they will accept the final outcome of the election, said newly elected Illinois Third Judicial Circuit Judge Amy Maher, a Republican who grew up in Alton.
“It’s a four-year term and things go back and forth. It has always been that way and it always will be that way,” Maher said. “If your candidate loses, you shake yourself off and put up a better candidate next time.”
Illinois Republicans stand behind Trump
Other Republican leaders from Illinois, meanwhile, emphasize the need to continue counting all legal votes, though they questioned the integrity of some ballots.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, and U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Saturday afternoon, but they spoke with the BND earlier this week about ongoing vote counting.
Bost said he was concerned about ballot harvesting, or when someone delivers ballots for another person. The concern is a political operative could change the person’s votes in between picking up a ballot and delivering it.
“They need to count and they also need to verify they were legitimate votes,” Bost said. “There’s a lot of questions on a lot of things that keep showing up.”
“I’m afraid it’s going to be tied up in the courts,” Bost added.
Trump tweeted in recent days saying counting should stop, though counting ballots after Election Day is a legal and normal process, especially in states such as Illinois that will accept ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 for a full two weeks after the election.
Davis said the media and the American public shouldn’t interpret the president’s tweets as policy directives.
“It’s pretty difficult to explain the differences that each state may have in their electoral process, since our elections are run at the state level, in 180 characters,” Davis said. “So, there are states that have different rules than what Illinois has, and we’ve got to follow those rules in those states.”
Illinois legislators decided to send vote-by-mail applications to every voter who had participated in an election from 2018 to 2020. But other states decided to send live ballots to every registered voter, and Davis said that’s cause for concern.
“Those are the processes that can be corrupted,” Davis said.
Another Republican congressman from Illinois, 16th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Kankakee, congratulated Biden and Harris on Twitter.
“Our nation deserves two competing parties who can work together when possible, and compete honorably when not,” Kinzinger tweeted.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said when all the ballots are counted, Biden will be the president.
“Donald Trump’s meritless, contradictory statements and legal filings will not succeed and they will not change the facts,” Duckworth said in a statement. “The American people have spoken and, on January 20th, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 1:34 PM.
