Momentum building behind Vice President Kamala Harris galvanized county-level Democratic Party leaders across Central Illinois this week, while their Republican counterparts spoke confidently about Harris’ inability to beat former President Donald Trump in November. 

The overall mood of both Democratic and Republican county party chairs reflected that of their national organizations: adapting to the rapidly shifting political landscape — and bracing for an intense campaign heading into November. 

Democrats were also grappling with their goodbye to President Joe Biden, who is expected to address the nation Wednesday to expand on Sunday’s announcement that he will not seek a second term.

Biden threw his support to Harris, who has said she hopes to earn the party’s nomination ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

Locally, party leaders on both sides anticipate advantages for their candidate in a Harris-Trump matchup. 

“I think she’s going to bring out some new voters, some new people, and honestly, I’m looking forward to seeing a career prosecutor … run against a felon,” said Patrick Cortesi, chairman of the McLean County Democrats, referring to Harris’ legal background and Trump’s felony convictions. 

Livingston County GOP Chairman Dave Rice said his party focuses more on policy positions than individual candidates, and in that respect, Harris would represent a continuation of the 81-year-old incumbent’s work. 

“It’s almost like they’re interchangeable," Rice said. "It almost doesn’t matter who they put up because the policies look like they’re still going to be the same policies they’re going to try to enact." 

A color-coded map based on 2020 election results depicts downstate Illinois as a sea of red, with blue halos around cities like Urbana, Bloomington, Decatur, Peoria and Springfield. 

Regional support for Trump was unsurprising, given the trend of most Central Illinois counties toward conservative politics — but some Democratic leaders this week said they saw reason to hope in the immediate response to Harris’ candidacy. 

Cortesi, the McLean County party chair, reported a recent influx of emails from people seeking to volunteer or donate to the party. Voters’ attention is being refocused to the issues at stake in the race, he said.  

Outside of the presidential election, he said, local Democrats are focused on winning a majority of seats on the county board and helping incumbents hold onto their seats in Springfield and Washington, D.C. Democratic state Rep. Sharon Chung of Bloomington, state Sen. Dave Koehler of Peoria and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen of Moline are all hoping to fend off Republican challengers (Desi Anderson, Sally Owens and Joe McGraw, respectively) in November. 

"We have a really good ‘get out the vote’ operation, and we’re excited to be enacting that,” Cortesi said. “The issues are still the same; it’s just a different name at the top of the ticket.”

In Logan County, the local party has doubled its membership in the past month, said Ronda Shelton, central committee chair. 

“We are united to support and do all we can to get the Democratic candidate into office,” Shelton said. “It’s everything. It is literally democracy over dictatorship.”

Historically, she said, Logan County has mostly elected Republicans, but a Democrat is now serving on Lincoln City Council, and party leaders hope to run more candidates for local office in coming years. 

Harris’ experience and familiarity with presidential responsibilities give her an advantage that other potential Democratic nominees might not have, she said. 

“She’s a strong, intelligent woman,” Shelton said. “We’re very progressive here and we’re ready for a woman. It’s exciting.”

As for Biden, Shelton joined other local Democrats in praising the president’s years of public service, as well as his decision to stand aside for what he said was the betterment of his party and country. 

“We respect Biden, we think he’s done a great job, but we do think that in his older age it was time for somebody else to step up and energize the party," she said, "and we feel like it has." 

Larry Stine, a Democratic candidate for a four-year term on the Woodford County Board, said Biden took the necessary action to satisfy voters, though he personally believed the president was still fit to lead. 

He said he and other members will continue reaching out to voters — door-to-door or by mail — and do whatever is needed to get them onboard. 

“I think she’s a strong candidate," he said of Harris. "I think she will poll well and she will do well in the run. I think she could win it.”

Stine is set to face Republicans John Krug and Johnathan Earl Schertz in November in the bid to represent District 1.

Like his Democratic counterpart, Logan County Republican Party Chair Jim Drew said Biden’s decision was "probably the right thing to do" for the good of the country. 

As for Harris, he said, “I think that’s up to that party to pick their nomination, and if that’s who they choose as the best candidate to fill that vacancy, that’s what they need to do.”

Drew said he expects strong Republican turnout this year: “There seems to be a lot of unity coming together as a party, so I think that all works well for the Republican Party.”

McLean County Republican Party Chairman Dennis Grundler said he thought Biden was forced off the ballot because he appeared likely to lose the election, a move he criticized as conflicting with the party’s stated values. 

“That’s not really democracy in our eyes,” Grundler said in an interview with The Pantagraph. He said that is “the elites choosing who they want to be on the ballot, and not the people.”

Grundler said his party doesn’t think Harris’ presidential candidacy will have much influence on national and local races, but he acknowledged the possible impact of having a woman at the top of the ticket.  

“We don’t believe (Harris) is going to be a threat to what we’re doing,” said Grundler, adding that their county board races are of particular focus. “We feel people have opened their eyes to know what’s going on with the current administration." 

He also said his party is 100% for Trump, and his members are putting out as many signs and conducting as many surveys as they can.

"He’s our option; he’s who we’re running with," Grundler said.

Rice, chairman of the Livingston County GOP, said Biden’s announcement didn’t come as a surprise.

“We were anticipating it, but at the same time, kind of thinking he might hang on longer — seemed pretty determined to stay in there, but from what we saw in the press, everything was mounting," he said. 

“It was just a matter of time.”

One main driver bringing Republicans to the polls, Rice said, was the desire to "not let a 2020 happen again.”

“We don’t want to see a repeat of 2020 where we had a presumed tsunami (of support for Trump) and then it didn’t materialize,” Rice said. I think we’ve learned a lesson, hopefully as a party, that the vote doesn’t count till we get out and actually cast it.”

Mateusz Janik, Brendan Denison and Drew Zimmerman contributed reporting.