Illinois Senate elections of Barack Obama 5, 2002 general election, Democratic Party candidate Obama, running unopposed on the ballot, was re-elected to a four-year term as state senator for the new 13th District with 48,717 votes. Illinois Senate elections of Barack Obama Barack Obama won three Illinois Senate elections. The Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama began in 1997 after his first election in 1996 to a two-year term in the Illinois Senate representing Illinois' 13th Legislative District in Chicago. He was re-elected in 1998 to a four-year term and re-elected again in 2002 to another four-year term. He resigned from the Illinois Senate in 2004
Speeches of Barack Obama including President Barack Obama and John Lewis, the only speaker from the original rally to remain living. Obama spoke on the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches, lauded unsung heroes and everyday Americans that stood up for justice. According to leading George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, the speech "falls into the category of speeches that every child should read in school" and is cited by the Washington Post as the Obama speech which will hold up best for posterity. After the Charleston church shooting, during which state senator Clementa C. Pinckney and eight other victims were gunned