Barack Obama Now Officially Has A Holiday In Illinois

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 9, 2017 6:20PM

McCormick Place (Photo by Tyler LaRiviere/Chicagoist)

On the fourth of August next year, Illinois will officially celebrate Forty Four.

Just over six months after leaving the White House, former president Barack Obama was given his own state holiday, in his adopted home state of Illinois. That was fast.

Governor Bruce Rauner signed the measure late last week, on Aug. 4, the same date it will be observed, beginning next year. That date, you might recall, also happens to be Obama's birthday. On a day in which the former president got some pretty memorable birthday wishes, we would not have expected perhaps the most noteworthy one to come at the pen of Illinois' Republican governor, but here we are!

To answer the question undoubtedly on your mind, no, don't expect to have the day off on "Barack Obama Day." In fact, a previous version of the bill that would have given state workers and students a day off didn't pass muster with many Republican lawmakers. Once it was altered to be strictly honorary, legislators voted unanimously in favor.

Anyone who followed the budget stalemate or is keeping tabs on the struggle to pass the school-funding mechanism might feel a sense of whiplash that it was Barack Obama—the most polarizing modern president, according to a Gallup poll—who brought together the legislature. But as Rauner said in February, "It's incredibly proud for Illinois that the president came from Illinois. I think it's awesome, and I think we should celebrate it."

The holiday honors Obama, "who began his career serving the People of Illinois in both the Illinois State Senate and the United States Senate, and dedicated his life to protecting the rights of Americans and building bridges across communities," the bill reads, according to NBC Chicago.