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On August 8, 2004 – with 86 days to go before the general election – the Illinois Republican Party drafted Alan Keyes to run against Democratic Illinois Senate member and future President of The United States Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate, after the Republican nominee, Jack Ryan, withdrew due to a sex scandal, and other potential draftees (most notably former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka) declined to run.

The Washington Post called Keyes a "carpetbagger"^[44] since he "had never lived in Illinois."^[45]^[46] When asked to answer charges of carpetbagging in the context of his earlier criticism of Hillary Clinton, he called her campaign "pure and planned selfish ambition", but stated that in his case he felt a moral obligation to run after being asked to by the state GOP. "You are doing what you believe to be required by your respect for God's will, and I think that that's what I'm doing in Illinois".

^{Alan came into the campaign at the last minute, with no local political relationships, no local name recognition and really, no chance of defeating Barry O.}

^{It wasn't Alan's fault at all.}