Jacob Meister, the openly gay candidate for Roland Burris' U.S. Senate seat, made a two-hour appearance at Halsted's, 3441 N. Halsted, on Oct. 8 to rally support for his campaign.
"This is an important place to discuss the issues that are important to our community," said Meister. "Currently there is no voice for the LGBT community in Washington, and there needs to be. Too long we have been taken for granted; this election is our chance to show how powerful our community can be."
Meister is running for the controversial 2nd Illinois U.S. Senate seat, currently held by Burris. Polls presently list Burris as having the lowest approval rating of any sitting U.S. senator, thought to be primarily due to the nature of his highly contested appointment by ousted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich last December.
Burris has stated that he will not run in 2010, which has created a wide-open race for his soon to be vacated seat.
Meister is currently considered by many analysts to be a long shot to win the election, but his supporters at the Halsted's event are confident that with more exposure, Illinois could soon be represented by the only openly gay member of the U.S. Senate.
"He's obviously an underdog in this race," stated supporter Bryce Bowman. "But as things progress I think more and more people are going to like what they see in Jacob. He doesn't have an ego and will get things done in Washington."
Around 60 supporters came to Halsted's at 7 p.m. to sign Meister's petition for candidacy and listen to him speak about various topics ranging from LGBT issues to economic development.
Meister also received support Thursday night from another openly gay candidate running for office in Illinois as Jim Madigan, a Democrat running for the state Senate in the 7th District, voiced his support.
"Jacob has been very supportive of my campaign," said Madigan. "I think his election would be a big step in American politics and would add some much needed diversity in the U.S. Senate."
Meister plans on next traveling to Springfield to begin a downstate tour aimed at rallying support in the rural southern counties.