Rep. Rush to Rauner: African American votes “not for sale”

UPDATED....At a South Side Quinn for Governor field office, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and Democratic National Committe Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz headlined a get-out-the-vote event on Monday where Rush blasted GOP nominee Bruce Rauner for trying to “buy” African-American support.

“I don’t know him,” Rush said at the Quinn office at 352 E. 47th St., where he was flanked by a group of African-American local activists and Wasserman Schultz. “But he thinks that just because he is rich and got a lot of money he can buy these people. . . . Well, he’s mistaken. We’re not for sale. We are for Pat Quinn.”

Rauner, who has poured millions of his own dollars into his campaign, is trying to make inroads with African-American voters who traditionally vote Democratic.

Wasserman Schultz, who also headlined two fundraisers downtown for House Democrats, spoke after Rush.

“It’s this community whose shoulders [Quinn] will stand on and who will carry him back. Because this is a community that understands what is at stake. I couldn’t agree with you more in the contrast that you drew,” Wasserman Schultz said.

“And you know, there is an expression that goes something like, ‘I might have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.’ Gov. Quinn’s opponent seems to think we were all born last night.”

UPDATE FROM RAUNER CAMPAIGN…

”Under Pat Quinn, nearly 1 in 5 African-American men in Illinois were unemployed last year. That’s unacceptable. Bruce Rauner is the only candidate with a plan to bring economic empowerment and opportunity to every African American family in Illinois,” said Rauner spokesperson Mike Schrimpf.