I mean, the Illinois Republican Party was so F'ed up, that they could find someone in the STATE to run against O they took someone from another state. What a joke!!
Perhaps other Rs in the state were scared that O would dig up dirt on them, which he was good at, and Keyes was courageous and didn’t have much dirt to dig up. Plus you said Keyes is the reason O won the presidency, not the Senate. Makes no sense.
The reasons O won the presidency are several, but Keyes is not one of them.