Illinois Governor JB Pritzker seeks third term amid questions about higher political ambitions
CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker will serve in his third term next year as questions about Democratic ambitions for senior positions.
Democrats will announce his intentions at an event in Chicago on Thursday because they do not have the right to speak publicly before the event, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The wealthy businessman, 60, was Kamala Harris’s campaign companion during the 2024 presidential campaign. Pritzker spent years on his history and remains a voice critic for President Donald Trump.
Often referred to as a potential presidential candidate for his party, he was travelling to New Hampshire to raise funds and campaign for Democrats nationwide. It is unclear whether he can still consider a bid in 2028 or later.
“Now in the office of public offices, Illinois, constantly asking myself, ‘How do I make sure I stand on the right side of history?’ “There is a simple answer: The wrong side of history always tells you to be afraid. The right side of history always hopes you are brave. ”
There is no term limit in Illinois. Pritzker is the first governor to seek a third term since Republican Jim Thompson in 1982.
Pritzker is the heir to the wealth of Hyatt Hotels and is a former private equity investor and philanthropist. He became governor in 2019, the first time he served in public office after losing his 1998 suburban congressional seat in the Democratic primary.
He beat a crowded elementary field for the governor and went on to beat first-year Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, a venture capitalist.
The 2018 tournament was one of the most expensive political campaigns in the state, raising more than $250 million among candidates who raised their own funds. Questions about the wealth and relevance of the two candidates – each named after the family, and they often appear.
Pritzker, for example, faces issues with property taxes on his Chicago luxury home. After removing the toilet from the second mansion he owned next to his family residence, he received a tax break and declared “uninhabitable.” Pritzker later repaid the county about $330,000.
Pritzker worked with the House and Senate Democratic Superman magazine, with a balanced budget and paying off billions of dollars in debt, prompting several escalations. He also oversees increased education funding, centralization of early childhood services, and new laws to make health insurance more comprehensive, accessible and affordable.
Pritzker earned his first semester for his handling of the league’s 19th pandemic, defeating a Trump-led Republican after 55% of the vote to become the first Illinois governor to be elected as a second term within 16 years. He quickly delivered a victory speech, which seemed to be a national campaign, condemning Trump and asking, “Are you ready for a fight?”
He continues to be one of Trump’s most silent critics.
“Donald Trump is a convicted felon with responsibility for sexual assault and congenital liar for sexual assault,” Pritzker said after Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in 2024. “He is a person who is completely unsuitable for the presidency in terms of temperament and character.”
In February, Jewish Prizker compared the Trump administration to Nazi Germany
“I won’t gently evoke the Nazi ghosts. But I know history very well and spend more time with those surviving the Holocaust than anyone in this room,” he said in February. “This is what I learned: the root of tearing the foundation of a house starts with the seed, a seed of distrust, hatred and blame.”
Pritzker, whose net worth is estimated to be $3.7 billion for Forbes, also funded his political organization “Think Big America.” It aims to protect the right to abortion and supports state constitutional amendments to strengthen protection in Ohio, Arizona and Nevada.
Pritzker said the fight for the right to abortion was personal, and his mother filed a lawsuit to spark his early interest in the abortion rights party while sparking his interest in the cause. His mother died in a car accident as a teenager. His father, Donald Pritzker, died of a heart attack when JB Pritzker was a little boy.
Pritzker is married and has two children. He has several outstanding family members. His sister, Penny Pritzker, is the former U.S. special representative for the economic recovery of Ukraine and is the U.S. Secretary of Commerce under the Obama administration.
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O’Connor report is from Springfield, Illinois.
