Obama To Give Final Presidential Speech In Chicago Next Month
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 23, 2016 4:36PM
Obama speaks at McCormick Place. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama has selected Chicago's McCormick Place as the site of his final presidential speech. He'll be returning to his hometown to deliver the speech Jan. 10, just days before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
Politico, which broke the news, reports that Obama is planning to thank Chicago and Illinois for making his political career—before running for president in 2008, Obama served as an Illinois Senator and later a U.S. Senator. Obama also worked as a community organizer in Chicago and later a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago Law School.
Obama held his second-term election night victory rally at McCormick Place, the Near South Side convention center in 2012.
The Obamas plan to stay in D.C. for the immediate future after Obama leaves office, and they seem more likely to resettle in New York City than return to Chicago, where they still have a home in Hyde Park. But Chicago's Jackson Park was selected as the future site of the Obama Presidential Library earlier this year, so we expect we'll be seeing a little more of the exiting president around Chicago in the next few years.