Before he was president, Barack Obama served the state of Illinois as a state and U.S. senator. And before that, the former chief executive made a name for himself as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side. Obama’s old grassroots activism grounds have already been named the site of his presidential library (even though there are some concerns that its construction will do the very things he once fought against in the community. Sorry, just keeping it real). But the point is, there’s a lot of mutual love between this state and the 44th president, which is why Governor Bruce Rauner has just declared Obama’s birthday a commemorative holiday. Starting in 2018, August 4 will be celebrated as Barack Obama Day in Illinois, according to NBC Chicago.
Because it’s a commemorative holiday, like the one honoring Ronald Reagan, and not a state holiday, there’ll be no mandatory office or school closures, or time off for state employees. Illinois Democrats initially pushed for an official state holiday, but apparently “some lawmakers” were upset that the Gipper hadn’t received such a high honor himself. Still, it’s one more state holiday than the current president is likely to ever get—Trump did, after all, fail to win his home state of New York in the 2016 election. But given the current state of things, we might not get the chance to celebrate the first Barack Obama Day.