Illinois
Lincoln and Obama, linked by Illinois roots, shaped U.S. history 150 years apart
As America turns 250 years old in 2026, CBS News Chicago is looking back at two presidents who called Illinois home.
Nearly 150 years separated the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, who both launched political careers Illinois.
In their times in office, they faced very different challenges, but the nation’s 44th president drew inspiration from the 16th president.
On a frigid February morning in 2007, then a U.S. Senator, Obama announced he was running for president. The symbolism of where he delivered the speech was unmistakable – at the Old State Capitol building in Springfield.
At the same building in 1858, Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches in American history.
“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free,” Lincoln told the crowd.
“The Lincoln that Obama is linking himself to in that moment in announcing his candidacy is the Lincoln who gave the ‘House Divided’ speech,” said University of Chicago professor Jane Dailey. “And that’s the Lincoln Obama, I think, was channeling in that moment as he talks about visions of community and democracy.”
Lincoln and Obama will be forever linked. Both lawyers from Illinois. Both served in the Illinois legislature before they were elected to Congress and later the White House. The Great Emancipator and the nation’s first Black president.
“You ask me what they have in common, and I think they both have a very strong belief in regular people; the capacity of Americans to be moral people, not every minute of every day, to take a stand on the right side of things if given the opportunity,” Dailey said.
Both Lincoln and Obama came to Illinois from other places. Lincoln was born in Kentucky and moved to Indiana at age 7 before his family came to Illinois when he was 21. Obama was born in Hawaii and lived in Seattle, Indonesia, Los Angeles, and New York before moving to Chicago in 1985.
Where Obama is a product of Ivy League schools, Lincoln was largely self-taught.
“He just read voraciously all the time. He didn’t boast about that, but someone asked him once, ‘Who did you study law with?’ and he said ‘Nobody. I read,” Dailey said.
Poverty drove Lincoln from Kentucky to Indiana then to Illinois. Obama, inspired by the city’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, moved to Chicago to become a community organizer.
“He ends up serving the state of Illinois. I’m not sure he would have imagined that. When he came to Chicago, I think he was coming specifically to Chicago to do the kind of organizing and activism that he wanted to do in the tradition of people who had gone before him,” Dailey said.
When Obama took the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he placed his hand on Lincoln’s bible. In his second term in 2013, Obama hand wrote an essay submitted to the Lincoln Presidential Library to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
“In the evening, when Michelle and the girls have gone to bed, I sometimes walk down the hall to a room Abraham Lincoln used as his office. It contains an original copy of the Gettysburg address, written in Lincoln’s own hand,” Obama wrote. “I linger on these few words that have helped define our American experiment: ‘A new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.’”
“One of the things that I think he was signaling – and Lincoln himself signaled this all the time – was the open possibility of the future. Obama says constantly, we want to have a more perfect union. We’re never going to get there, we’re never going to have a perfect union, but if we all work really hard, we might have a more perfect union,” Dailey said.
In writing about Lincoln, Obama went on to say “Lincoln’s words give us confidence that whatever trials await us, this nation and the freedom we cherish can, and shall, prevail.”
Millions of asylum seekers have been impacted as caseloads have grown
A general crackdown on immigration courts the administration sees as liberal has led to the firing of dozens of immigration judges.
Recent polls show President Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to dip as the war in Iran endures and national gas prices float above $4.
One such poll conducted by CNN/SSRS illustrates widespread upset among Americans with regards to Trump’s handling of the economy and inflation. Here’s how Trump’s approval ratings look nationally and within Illinois, as of April 20.
Donald Trump approval rating: CNN
Only 31% of Americans approve of how Trump is handling the economy, compared to 39% in January 2026, according to the poll.
The decline in approval on the issue is even higher among Republicans, especially Republicans under 45 years old, according to CNN.
In the poll, President Donald Trump received his worst approval rating yet in either of his two terms on the economy.
CNN findings show about two-thirds of Americans say Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions, and 27% say they approve of Trump’s handling of inflation.
CNN also reported 63% of Americans say the prices at the pump have caused financial hardship in their household, including 15% calling it “severe.”
The poll, conducted March 26-30 among 1,201 U.S. adults, found 35% approve of Trump’s job performance overall. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
One poll respondent told CNN and the pollster about the most important issue facing the country: “Prices! Everything is so expensive. Makes it very difficult to do anything other than work and go home. Trips to the grocery store are ridiculous! Between gas and grocery prices, we are poor!”
Trump addressed the concerns about gas prices in his address to the nation on April 1, saying the Strait of Hormuz would reopen when the conflict was over and the prices would fall again.
Trump reaffirmed his promise about the strait on April 18, saying his administration had “very good conversations going on” with Iran after the country said the strait would not be reopened.
Donald Trump approval rating in Illinois: Civiqs
Trump’s job approval rating in Illinois, as of April 18, according to data from online survey platform Civiqs, is as follows:
- Approve — 32%.
- Disapprove — 65%.
- Neither — 4%.
Donald Trump national approval rating: Civiqs
Trump’s national approval rating as of April 13, according to data from Civiqs, is as follows:
- Approve — 39%.
- Disapprove — 57%.
- Neither — 4%.
Donald Trump approval rating in Illinois: The Economist
Trump has a -36% net approval rating in Illinois as of April 20, according to data from The Economist.
Donald Trump national approval rating: The Economist
Trump’s national approval rating as of April 20, according to data from The Economist, is as follows:
- Approve — 38%.
- Disapprove — 56%.
- Don’t know — 7%.
Trump, Iran War approval rating: Pew Research Center
A Pew Research study conducted in mid-March found that about six-in-ten Americans (61%) approve of Trump’s handling of the conflict in Iran, with 39% approving.
A report released in early April found that the largest concern for most Americans as a result of the conflict is higher gas prices, with 69% saying they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the issue.
Other Trump approval rating polls as of April 20
Here is a look at some other polling aggregators to understand how CNN/SSRS’s poll compares to the average Trump approval numbers as of April 20:
RealClearPolitics Poll Average: 41.2% approve, 56.6% disapprove.
The New York Times: 40% approve, 56% disapprove.
Silver Bulletin: 39.7% approve, 56.4% disapprove.
Which president has the lowest approval rating ever?
Although Trump has dropped to a historic low in approval rating polls this term so far, he hit a 34% low in the first term and other recent presidents such as Joe Biden hit a 36% low, Barack Obama hit a 40% low, George W. Bush hit a 25% low and Bill Clinton hit a 37% low, according to the Gallup polls, whose recorded lowest rating was Harry Truman with 22%.
As for the highest presidential approval ratings, George W. Bush holds the highest approval rating ever recorded at 90%, while his father, George H. Bush holds the second highest at 89%.
Trump is the only president that has not reached a 50% or higher approval to date in the Gallup polls’ history.
CENTRALIA, Ill. – An investigation is underway after multiple people were shot Sunday in Centralia, Illinois, according to a report from WFCN News in southern Illinois.
FOX 2 has confirmed the Illinois State Police is investigating a shooting and taking over the investigation, but ISP could not confirm many further details as of 9 p.m. Sunday.
“The investigation is in its infancy and to protect the integrity of the investigation, no additional details will be released at this time,” ISP said in a statement to FOX 2.
According to WFCN News, the shooting happened around 5 p.m. near the 900 block of East Kell Street in Centralia. Multiple law enforcement agencies have since responded to scene and multiple victims are hospitalized, according to the report.
It’s unclear how many people may have been injured and what led up to the shooting.
Centralia, Illinois is about 70 miles, or just over an hour, east of St. Louis.
This is a developing story. FOX 2 will update as more information becomes available.
The National Weather Service has teams of storm surveryors in the field April 18 investigating several reports of severe storms and tornado touch downs across eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois and northeast Missouri.
According to the weather service’s website, windgusts of up to 60 to 70 mph along with teacup-sized hail and several tornadoes were reported April 17.
Many homes and outbuildings were damaged, trees were uprooted and power lines were downed in Lena, Illinois, where the most significant damage occurred, the site pointed out.
Very strong winds also were reported near Washington, Iowa, and Colmar, Illinois, where several outbuildings and grain bins were destroyed.
The weather service received reports of confirmed and possible tornadoes in the areas of Lena, Pecatonica, Shirland, Rockton, Roscoe and Capron.
The teams will be assessing damage this weekend into next week along with county emergency management teams to determine what types of storms occurred and their paths.
Dozens of power outages were reported, as well.
As of the afternoon of April 18, ComEd was reporting 85 active power outages across northern Illinois, down from 241 on April 17, and 6,751 customers affected, down from more than 18,000.
The bulk of those outages and the most customers impacted are concentrated in Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties.
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