Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is expanding his national profile and generating buzz around a potential 2028 presidential candidacy.
The two-term Illinois governor is the heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, making him the richest governor in America’s history and the one of the richest elected officials in office. Pritzker’s billionaire status allows him to frequently bankrollDemocratic causes, giving him potential to be a formidable candidate.
The first of Pritzker’s upcoming high profile events is the New Hampshire Democrat Party’s largest fundraiser, the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner, where he will be delivering the keynote address on April 27. Pritzker is also slated to headline the Michigan Democratic Party Legacy Dinner in June.
The Illinois governor has been a power player for the Democratic Party for years. Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign even vetted him as a possible running mate in 2024. More recently, Pritzker was one of the party’s biggest donors to the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, second only behind George Soros.
Pritzker attended high-profile events all throughout March, headlining the Jim Owles Winter Pride Gala in New York City, as well as the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in Los Angeles, sparking talks around his rumored presidential bid.
In recent weeks, the 60-year-old has intensified his attacks on the White House, adding onto his long history of fiercely opposing Trump. Pritzker blasted the Trump administration’s policies at a Chicago community event last week, claiming the president “wants to cut life-saving programs.” On April 9, Pritzker tore at Trump’s economic policies while speaking to high school members of the Future Farmers of America in Springfield, Illinois, referencing trade with Canada and Mexico being harmed through “a self-inflicted trade war.”
Despite dragging Trump’s policies and filling his calendar, Pritzker is yet to officially declare either a presidential bid or a run for a third term as Illinois’ governor.
“There is no doubt that he is going to run,” prominent Chicago Democrat Bill Daley, who served as President Bill Clinton’s commerce secretary and President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, told the Wall Street Journal. “The real question is whether he runs for re-election first or just runs for president.”
Daley went on to tell the publication that he would advise against a gubernatorial run with the possibility of crisis or scandal harming a gubernatorial campaign. Daley, whose brother and father were the two longest-serving mayors in Chicago history, said Pritzker’s fortune allows him to announce a presidential bid in 2026 and quickly hire the best talent available to staff his campaign.
Kathy Salvi, chair of the Illinois Republican Party, said there’s an “audible groan” from Illinois residents whenever his name is mentioned.
“He is hugely unpopular here in Illinois and that’s because we see him for who he is,” Salvi told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “He’s got a soft launch of his presidential bid in New Hampshire that just proves Illinois has just been a stepping stone for him to advance his personal ambition while we’re settled here with the heavy effect of his administration’s failed policies.”
Illinois politics could quickly steal the focus if Pritzker announces a presidential bid, highlighting some of the highesttaxes in the nation as well as the state’s shrinking population. Illinois is also home to Chicago’s violent crime rate and struggling education system.
Paul Vallas, a Democrat who served as the former Chicago public schools chief and past city budget director, claims that all the money being poured into Chicago’s education system is being “wasted.”
“Despite Illinois pouring billions more into education than prior to the pandemic — $44 billion in 2024 against $35 billion in 2019 — all the evidence points to that money being wasted,” Vallas, the runner-up for the 2023 Chicago mayoral election, wrote in a newsletter. “Fewer Illinois students can read or compute proficiently today than could five years ago and overall state test scores are abysmal. Rather than sound the alarm over the bleak findings, Governor J.B. Pritzker is calling Illinois’ dismal results an inspiring success.”
“People are voting with their feet,” Vallas told the Wall Street Journal. “The state is an absolute disaster.”
“We have drained Illinois businesses, families leaving, there’s not a person who I have met who says their children are looking for a future in Illinois,” Salvi told the DCNF. “JB Pritzker is in lockstep with the radical progressive left of his party and in any and everything that he’s meddling in is a bad result for America and certainly for Illinois.”
Still, Illinois has seen some improvements since Pritzker moved into the governor’s mansion in 2019. The state’s credit was stagnant for decades but has been upgraded three times since 2019, largely in part to Pritzker’s encouragementtowards quantum computing.
The Prairie State has also seen tighter gun restrictions as well as a drop in gun violence by over 40% according to a recent report by Northwestern University. Even still, a massive budget deficit looms over any potential bids for the White House.
“If JB Pritzker is on board with anything, then it’s common sense for common sense to go the opposite way,” Salvi told the DCNF. “We in Illinois can’t wait to get rid of (Pritzker’s policies). Save America from JB Pritzker.”
Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond to the DCNF for comment.
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