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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — JB Pritzker is at a political crossroads.
The popular, two-term Illinois governor would be a prohibitive favorite if he runs again in 2026.
But the fiery progressive Democrat is also increasingly burnishing his national political credentials, making high profile appearances across the country, using his vast personal wealth to bankroll Democratic causes and pillorying the divisive policies of President Donald Trump.
Pritzker has strong views about what Democrats need to do to claw their way back from the wilderness after the drubbing they took in November.
“Democrats shouldn't fall into the trap that they fell into in 2024 of responding to everything that the Republicans say, given the way they twist things,” Pritzker said in a wide-ranging interview in his Capitol office where he signs bills. “Republicans keep asking the question, ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?’ There is no good answer to that.”
But at the same time, Pritzker stresses, Democrats need to vigorously defend core principles, saying it was a “mistake” that Kamala Harris’ campaign never came up with an effective answer to Trump’s attacks for her support of transgender rights.
Asked how he would have responded, Pritzker said: “First of all, stop picking on the smallest minority of people whose civil rights are just as important as yours. … Trans children are most likely of any group to commit suicide. Why do Republicans have no sympathy for that at all?”
Pritzker is looking to execute a political balancing act when it comes to bolstering his political prospects both in Illinois and nationwide. That means speaking out forcefully on the most hot-button issues – immigration, tariffs, DOGE – while also taking steps to boost home-state constituencies like Illinois farmers and veterans.
His full-throated attacks on Trump are drawing attention from prominent national Democrats. It’s a tactic that more party leaders should emulate, says David Hogg, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who ignited a firestorm in the party in recent days with his pledge to fund primary challenges against some “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in safe-blue seats.
“We’re in a moment … where some people are saying, ‘We need to roll over and die’ and other people want to fight,” Hogg said about Democratic messaging. “JB wants to fight.”
Outspoken on immigration
The governor and his staff spent months preparing for a November loss, even though they were hopeful that Harris would triumph, said Anne Caprara, who ran Pritzker’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign and is now his chief of staff.
“JB is just a person who hopes for the best and prepares for the worst,” Caprara said.
Pritzker’s immediate post-election message was a warning to Trump and an assurance to the state’s Democratic voters that he would stand up for abortion rights, immigration and LGBTQ+ protections if they came under attack.
“You come for my people, you come through me,” he said just two days after the election.
On immigration, in particular, Pritzker has been among the loudest voices attacking the Trump administration’s policies. It’s a contrast from many other ambitious Democrats who have looked for ways to show voters that they support tougher enforcement efforts targeting undocumented immigrants in the wake of the election drubbing.
“Why is Donald Trump kicking out law-abiding, tax-paying people who have been here 10 and 20 years and raised a family here?” Pritzker asked. “Why are they picking on those people and kicking them out? If you had proper immigration laws, you would want them to come to this country. We need them to fill jobs.”
Though Pritzker also has repeatedly said he supports kicking out criminals, his views on immigration have put him in the sights of Republican Rep. James Comer’s Oversight Committee, which has called him to testify next month on Illinois’ sanctuary status rules that forbid local authorities from helping with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities,” Comer, of Kentucky, said in a statement announcing the hearing.
The Illinois governor has yet to say whether he will agree to testify before the committee. His team has called it a “partisan dog and pony show.”
As Pritzker ticked off his concerns about Trump’s policies, he sat in the shadow of a wall-size portrait of one of the storied debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas.
His attacks on Trump have seldom risen to those rhetorical heights. The Illinois governor has described the president as “a narcissist," “rich in stupidity” and someone who “behaves like a fifth-grader.” He’s even invoked Hitler in describing the Trump administration’s actions.
How he talks to the public, Caprara said, has been shaped in large part by what he learned during the pandemic, when he gave at least 85 televised press conferences on the spread of the disease and how to stay safe.
“What we learned was that in times of really great uncertainty people value clear communication from their leaders,” said Caprara. “And they value communication that is not mealy mouthed or wishy-washy or obfuscating what actually is happening in the world. And so that is the world in which we've operated since November.”
Pritzker is now taking that message across the country.
Since March, he has headlined the Jim Owles Winter Pride Gala in New York City and the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Los Angeles. Pritzker has also taken center stage at Democratic Party events in Florida and Texas.
Next week, he’s the featured speaker at New Hampshire Democrats’ iconic McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club dinner, a major fundraiser known for drawing big names ahead of presidential elections. And in June, Pritzker headlines the Michigan Democratic Party Legacy Dinner.
In addition, Pritzker’s Think Big America has pumped in money to support progressive legislation and candidates across the country, including in red states. The nonprofit has so far put money into supporting abortion rights initiatives in nine states and saw seven of them pass in the past two cycles, including in Ohio and Montana.
“Abortion rights are broadly popular, and there are plenty of Republicans and independents who came out to vote for that issue and came to our side," said Mike Ollen, who heads the organization and is in Pritzker’s inner circle, having served as campaign manager for his 2022 gubernatorial run.
Pritzker, whose family built the Hyatt Hotel empire, has also donated millions of dollars to races across the country, including $1.5 million to the winning Democrat-aligned candidate in last month’s high-profile Wisconsin Supreme Court race.
The governor’s rising national profile has hit a nerve with Illinois Republicans who see it as political “grandstanding” and “a distraction” from “the mess” in Illinois, according to state party Chair Kathy Salvi, referring to the state’s projected $3 billion-plus budget deficit. She uses Pritzker’s speaking engagements as a foil to rally members in her weekly email.
Pritzker’s “largesse at the taxpayer’s trough drives the good people, families and business out of our beloved Illinois,” Salvi added in a statement to POLITICO. “He is crushing us. Save America from JB Pritzker.”
Pritzker says his speaking engagements shouldn’t be read as a lead-up to a presidential campaign. All those national TV hits attacking Trump, he insists, are really an effort to bring attention to his state, highlighting the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs and federal government cuts on his constituents.
“The more that I can help stoke that, the better it is for farmers here in Illinois,” he said.
Touting Illinois accomplishments
Pritzker and his team like to remind critics of the economic chaos they inherited when he took office. A nearly two-year budget standoff between his predecessor and the Legislature sent bond ratings careening toward junk level.
Pritzker ran on an ambitious agenda and accomplished much of what he wanted in his first term, including raising the minimum wage, further protecting reproductive rights, legalizing cannabis — and getting the state’s finances back in order.
In his office across from the Lincoln portrait is a sign that Pritzker likes to highlight to visitors. It's a headline: “Illinois credit rating upgraded: Moody’s upgrade is state’s first in two decades.”
But he seldom speaks in public without criticizing the White House. In Springfield last week, Pritzker poked at the Trump administration on economic issues even while speaking to a few hundred high school members of the Future Farmers of America.
“The harsh cuts to USDA programs proposed by DOGE and the tariffs that the president put in place are already taking their toll on our rural communities,” Pritzker said.
He went on to take questions from the statehouse press corps and then joined some Republican state lawmakers to reveal the winner of the “Coolest Thing Made in Illinois.” It was the Aerial Firefighting Helicopter Refill Pump that was actually used to help fight the recent Los Angeles wildfires. In the evening, Pritzker hosted state lawmakers and rabbis for a Passover Seder.
The Pritzker-Trump tension goes back to the 1990s, when the Pritzker family battled Trump in court over New York hotel properties. It festered through the 2016 election when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton and then metastasized during Covid.
Illinois hospitals were full and people were dying, so the Democratic governor swallowed his pride and got on the line with Trump — billionaire to billionaire — to ask for help in securing N95 masks and ventilators, he tells audiences, most recently on “The View.”
Trump agreed, but only if Pritzker would go on the national Sunday talk shows and praise him. It was a vain request, but Pritzker, who purses his lips when he retells the story, acquiesced, saying he was “desperate.” When only loose-fitting masks and broken BiPAP breathing machines arrived, Pritzker fumed about being short-changed.
“He never delivered for us, Pritzker said. “He never delivered for the American people.”
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