+34
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is considering a third term while a growing national profile and his outspoken criticism of President Trump have fueled speculation about a potential White House run. His confrontations with the administration contrast with other Democratic leaders seeking a more cooperative relationship with the president.
A billionaire is one of Trump’s loudest critics. Will Democrats send him to the White House? As the Illinois governor seeks a third term, his growing national profile has fueled speculation about a possible White House bidreturned to power, 20 long months ago, some state leaders wrung their hands, worrying what explicit resistance might cost their citizens – and their careers – during the second term of a vengeful president.
JB Pritzker was not among them.warned the president would need to “come through me” to reach the people of his state. He waited all of 30 days after the inauguration before drawing a comparison with Nazi Germany.in February 2025, “is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control”.
While Pritzker is willing to cede that he was not entirely alone in standing up to Trump in those early months, prominent figures alongside him could be counted “on each of your digits”, he suggests in an interview at his campaign headquarters in Chicago. Others have taken an altogether different tack. New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is among those who have sought to strike a productive working relationship with the president.
And in Washington, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer faced fierce criticism after some Democratic senators reached a bipartisan deal to end the Now, Pritzker suggests, the number of elected leaders willing to speak out aggressively against the administration is “finally” growing.
“For one reason or another, people have chosen to come on board with Team Fight, and get off of Team Cave. ”Trump and Pritzker have a few things in common. Both are billionaires who inherited enormous wealth from their families. Both worked in business before entering politics.
Both – no, the comparison pretty much ends there, says Pritzker, who, according to the governor’s campaign, has not spoken to Trump since the Covid pandemic.
“He’s a wannabe authoritarian, and I don’t say that rhetorically,” argues Pritzker, a philanthropist who helped build his state’s Holocaust Museum before entering office and spent time with survivors. “One thing that they would tell you is that you cannot give an authoritarian an inch. ” The governor is regularly cited as a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nominee – encouraged, however implicitly, by his self-appointment as captain of Team Fight in Illinois.
Amidover the political status quo – not just at one party, or one president, but the sustained failure to fix big problems and improve their lives – could he do this job nationwide? Illinois is one of 36 states with gubernatorial elections coming in November. Pritzker is widely expected to become the state’s first three-term governor in more than three decades. Pritzker, first elected during Trump’s first term, says his tenure has been dominated by four crises: a fiscal quagmire inherited from his Republican predecessor; the Covid-19 pandemic; Texas governor Greg Abbott’s move to send All the while, he says, he has focused on affordability and the rights of Illinoisans, from raising the state minimum wage to codifying reproductive rights. After a string of credit rating upgrades, Pritzker likens alleviating the state’s financial woes process to reorienting an aircraft carrier 180 degrees – something he claims to have done, although criticsPritzker talks with a supporter before taking the stage during Democrat Day at the Illinois state fair on 19 August.
With Democrats hoping to use November’s midterm elections to mount a significant fightback against Trump, Pritzker launched a $20mHis job might be in the state of Illinois, but his career aspirations sure look national. Time is slowly but surely ticking on the Trump era.
With the president barred by the US constitution from running for a third term, the searing political spotlight will soon shift, whether he likes it or not, on to those vying to succeed him.search for a candidate who could win back the White House and confine this chapter to the history books, speculation around Pritzker’s aspirations stepped up a level last week when he disclosed he has been using a GLP-1 medication to lose weight over the past two years. Just how many times has he been asked if he’s running for president?
For the first time in our hour together, Pritzker hesitates.
“I’m not sure the connection,” he replies. “National political reporters can’t help yourselves,” he adds, referring to the way the announcement about his health was covered. “I’m not sure the question. You’re asking … what are you asking me?
”who argues Democrats should campaign nationally on issues he so happens to have championed in his state – been asked if he’s running for president?
“Reporters that don’t know me” continue to ask “very often”, he concedes. “I understand why people ask the question,” he continues, pointing to his record in Illinois. The conspicuous lack of a firm answer might also have something to do with it. He is more open to discussing what exactly went wrong at the last election, and the factors behind the crushing defeat suffered by Kamala Harris in 2024.
Beyond the “entire setup” of Joe Biden’s withdrawal 15 weeks before polling day, Pritzker wishes the campaign had focused more on “putting money in people’s pockets”, citing an increase in the national minimum wage, which has stood at“I think the campaign should have entirely been about working families, the middle class, people striving to get there, and the most vulnerable,” says Pritzker.
“And I often say those things – I mean, I talk about those people – because that’s why I’m a Democrat. And it’s why, I think, most people are Democrats, or would vote for a Democrat. ” It is also, perhaps coincidentally, one of the key areas where Pritzker says he has delivered in Illinois.
From the outset as governor, he took the view that he should be “fighting for the things that in your everyday life are challenging, fighting to overcome those challenges, and fighting for things that make it a little easier”, he says. Even in campaign mode, he acknowledges one failure: his signature plan to overhaul the state’s tax system from a flat rate to a graduated levy, which wasAn heir to the Hyatt hotel chain who ran an investment firm with his brother before running for governor, Pritzker’s personal fortune currently stands at about $4.2bn,to Forbes: significantly more than Trump’s fortune before his return to office, albeit significantly less than Trump’s fortune today.
Pritzker pays his respects after leaving flowers at a memorial for Alex Pretti in Chicago on 28 January; Pretti was fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis.while playing blackjack on vacation.
“I was incredibly lucky,” he said at a press conference at the time. “It was in Las Vegas, and I like to play cards,” he added as an explanation. We’ve all been there. This year’s Democratic primaries have been dominated by headlines about anti-establishment, anti-elite candidates – including some members of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA – clinching the party’s nominations, from Michigan and Pennsylvania to New York and Florida.
Pritzker has been watching closely.
“I think there is a desperate need for elected officials to address affordability,” he says. “And the candidates that are winning are the ones who are communicating their passion for the issue, and their articulation of the policies that will bring that. I think if you’re not showing up with that, then you’re missing the point. ” Sure, Pritzker cedes across the boardroom table; “some national reporters” have “focused” on DSA victories.
“But I will just point out to you that that’s a very, relatively small percentage of the results in primaries,” he suggests. “Although they’re notable. ” “The more outspoken people, even if they weren’t DSA members, I think won,” he adds.
“And they won because that is what people are feeling. People are hurting, genuinely pained, right now. ” A notable number of Democratic candidates won the party’s nomination by speaking out not only for those struggling to make ends meet – but also against those at the other end of the spectrum, with extreme wealth. Pritzker and running mate Christian Mitchell greet people on the lakefront while kicking off a bus tour during his re-election campaign on 26 August.
Pritzker allows a brief chuckle.
“Could we rephrase that question? Because you’re trying to single me out, I think,” he says.
“How about if we say it a little – I’ll just answer it the way I want to. ” “When I ran in Democratic primary in 2018, people asked the question, do we really want a businessman billionaire to be our Democratic candidate for governor?
I think a legitimate question, given … what people were seeing,” he says, pointing again to Trump, but also Bruce Rauner, the former Republican Illinois governor – a mere multimillionaire at the time – whom he went on to defeat.
“Legitimate question today,” acknowledges Pritzker. “Look at Elon Musk. Look at Sam Altman. Look at – we could make a list, whoever you want to fit in what sometimes people refer to as ‘the oligarchs’ in that group.
I understand the skepticism that people have about wealthy people.
“But what I can tell you is that, over the course of the last eight years – and I think over the course of my life, really, but certainly as people have paid more attention over the last eight years – I’ve proven that I have, in fact, done more for working people in this state than maybe any governor in the country, and … restored services for the most vulnerable people in our state. “And so the real question is, what are your values?
Not how much money do you have, but what do you believe? ”
JB Pritzker White House Race Donald Trump Illinois Governor Democratic Party
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Clareville Peter Stutchbury House Listed for $6 Million as Owners Move to Hunter ValleyRoberta and Patrick, both 65, are selling their award-worthy Clareville home designed by Peter Stutchbury with a $6 million price guide after nearly a decade on the northern beaches.
Read more »
‘A privilege and a pleasure’: What life’s like in an award-worthy houseThe tri-level home is nestled in the treetops, with northern sun, light changing throughout the day and shelter from the weather.
Read more »
Western Sydney home owners 'battening down the hatches'Between interest rate and petrol price rises and falling house values, Western Sydney residents say making ends meet is getting tough.
Read more »
Mike Flanagan's Carrie Series Cast Summer H. Howell After 1400 Auditions, Premieres on Prime VideoMike Flanagan's new Carrie adaptation for Amazon Prime Video stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie White after more than 1400 auditions, with a reinvented Margaret White and Chris Hargensen. Stephen King approved the series, which updates the story for today's teenagers.
Read more »