My family didn't – frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week.

He was elected over Republican John Mc Cain, and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

He joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.

In 1994, he was listed as one of the lawyers in Buycks-Roberson v. He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations. He created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002.

In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.

Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates.