There are two guaranteed venues for finding Chicago politicians on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in a presidential election year: parades and pulpits.

On the final weekend of campaigning before the Illinois primary on Tuesday, candidates fanned out across the city’s houses of worship and its routes of green marchers in hopes of shaking every last hand in the home stretch of another grueling political season.

But Chicago’s robust lineup of Irish American celebrations can lead to some difficult choices of late-game political strategy. Eileen O’Neill Burke, Democratic candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, opted for the Northwest Side Irish St. Patrick’s Day Parade instead of the larger South Side Irish Parade scheduled for the same time Sunday.

“I had to go with where I came from,” the former appellate judge said hoarsely, in what she called her “campaign voice” after hours of chatting up potential voters on Saturday in the downtown St. Pat’s parade.

O’Neill Burke joked that her uber-Irish surnames might attract some more voters in “the high season for the Irish,” but she was quick to pivot to her tough-on-crime talking points.

“We can make this system work in every single town and every single neighborhood,” she said. “Let’s go out and vote and make our feelings known. If you think it’s going well, by all means, don’t vote, or vote for my opponent. He’s your candidate if you think things are going great.”

That primary opponent, the party-backed Clayton Harris III, said things were going great for him connecting with voters on Saturday outside a North Side library — and he insisted he’s the superior candidate to address their concerns.

“They’re concerned about safety. What they really want is the certainty that when someone commits a crime, they’re held accountable, and I tell them that we’re always going to hold people accountable accordingly.”

Harris will miss his first day of class as a public policy lecturer at the University of Chicago, where the first day of the spring quarter falls on Election Day. But he said after Tuesday, his focus will be on his students — and perhaps a general election campaign.

“We’ll finish out the quarter strong and make sure we’re working on sound policy until November,” Harris said. “I’m going on faith that it’s going to be me.”

Harris went with faith on his Sunday campaign schedule as well, bringing his message to Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin.

Candidates for the 7th Congressional District anchored on the West Side took the same leap Sunday. Trying to hold on for a 15th consecutive term, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis touted his lengthy record while touring four churches across the South and West sides.

“Of course I want you to vote for me,” Davis, 82, said after citing a few verses of Scripture, drawing laughs from the congregation at Friendship Baptist Church in Austin. “I want you to vote for me because I think I deserve to be voted for.

“I’m not gonna try to tell you everything about it all — Google it. Pull it up on Wikipedia, whatever, and look at what the experts say about my tenure in office. I brought billions of [federal] dollars to this community.”

Progressive activist Kina Collins had a tough act to follow after Pastor Robert Pomerlee’s lively Sunday afternoon service at Christ Resurrection Missionary Baptist Church in Austin.

Collins took a rest from knocking doors to worship, and to tell congregants that “the West Side deserves housing and health care. We deserve safe neighborhoods free of gun violence … and God willing on Tuesday, I’m going to deliver it for you all.”

“While I appreciate the work that Rep. Davis has done, it’s time for a change in our district,” she said to scattered applause. “I’m not trying to walk in front of Rep. Davis. I’m trying to cross that finish line together. I do think it’s time to pass the torch.”

During her seventh church visit of the day, City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin rallied supporters at Harmony Community Church in North Lawndale following rousing performances from gospel singers. The crowd included Conyears-Ervin’s family, her husband, Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), and Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th).

Hoping to unseat Davis after his 28 years representing the 7th District, Conyears-Ervin called herself the “candidate of change.”

“If you want someone that is going to go to Washington to work as hard as you do each and every day for our working families, I’m the candidate,” Conyears-Ervin said. “If you want our community to stay stagnant with someone that has been in elected office for 45 years, then I am not the candidate for you.”

Once Tuesday has come and gone, Conyears-Ervin looks forward to taking her 7-year-old daughter, Geneva, out for pizza.

Fellow 7th District challenger Kouri Marshall said he’s brought the campaign message to more than 21 churches across the district over the past few months, the latest being Chicago West Bible Church on Sunday.

Candidates don’t get much sleep in a normal primary season, but Marshall has gotten even less after welcoming his first son, Kouri II, last month.

“It’s certainly made it more of a tightrope,” said Marshall, a former aide to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “But it reinforces why I’m running. There’s a generation of young Black men in our district who need more role models. And they need a new generation of leadership in tune with them.”

Middle school teacher Nikhil Bhatia kept up his shoe-leather approach in the final weekend of his bid to unseat Davis, knocking on doors from the South Side to the western suburbs.

Bhatia is on sabbatical from teaching 7th graders at Gary Comer Middle School in Woodlawn, but he said he’s looking forward to getting back later this month to his students, who gave him a raucous reception on a visit last month.

“They’re not always that nice on a day-to-day basis,” Bhatia said. “But they miss you when you’re gone.”

It’s all been worth it “to bring a fresh perspective” to the district, he said.