Less than 24 hours after dropping out of the mayor’s race, Congressman Danny K. Davis told hundreds of people attending the regular Saturday morning meeting of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition on the South Side that “in unity there is strength’’ and that there is nothing more important to him than using that unity and strength to elect former U. S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun as “the next Mayor of the city of Chicago.’’
“As the song says, `Ain’t no stopping us now,’’’ Davis said, standing on the PUSH stage next to Braun and state Sen. James Meeks, who left the race the week before. “We are on the move.’’
The PUSH meeting was supposed to be about jobs and hundreds of people brought their resumes. But when Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., the founder of Rainbow/PUSH, called Braun, Davis and Meeks to the stage, the meeting quickly turned into a political pep rally.
Braun said, “I’m going to give you my resume.’’
Then she quickly went over her career, from Recorder of Deeds to U.S. Senator to Ambassador to New Zealand to farmer to businesswoman and several posts in between.
“I’m the most qualified for the job’’ of mayor, she said.
Braun said she was going to build “a coalition of conscience’’ and “bring the people back together. Give them hope.’’
During a brief news conference after the meeting, neither Braun nor Davis would say exactly why he agreed to drop out, clearing the way for Braun to be the survivor – the last major African-American candidate standing.
Braun said that after several meetings with Jackson and other black leaders, it was decided that she was the best candidate who could communicate across the city a progressive agenda.
“I’ve won three times across the city,’’ she said.
Gracious and folksy, Davis admitted that one reason he dropped out was that there was not enough money in the form of contributions to go around. He likened the situation to his family’s tradition of eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day. But when there’s only one cup of peas and lots of family members coming to dinner someone is going to go hungry.
“It was clear,’’ Jackson said, “that they shared values but could not share resources.’’