Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has always been on a glide path to his third Democratic nomination for governor ever since he announced he would seek re-election. Now, he knows the Republican he will face in November.
With Darren Bailey winning the Republican primary, NBC News projects, Pritzker will have a familiar battle. The two squared off in 2022, when Pritzker easily defeated Bailey, a downstate Republican.
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Illinois has proven to be difficult terrain for Republicans in recent years in statewide and local legislative districts. Democrats held supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature during Pritzker’s eight-year hold on the governorship.
What’s different about Pritzker’s third campaign to become Illinois’ top executive is that he has higher aspirations. It’s an open secret that Pritzker, a onetime businessman and heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, is considering a 2028 White House run. That opens him up to criticism from Republican opponents, who might argue he’s not really invested in the state. If he is re-elected, Pritzker will begin his new term in 2027, coinciding with an intense presidential campaign year, and he should take that route.
Pritzker has grown into a national figure in recent years, establishing himself as a foil to President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies. The Department of Homeland Security conducted a months-long immigration enforcement operation in Illinois, including aggressively conducting arrests and distributing chemical agents in neighborhoods throughout the Chicago area.
Pritzker repeatedly asked residents to use their phones to document any immigration enforcement activity and potential abuses by federal officials, and he named the Illinois Accountability Commission, led by a federal judge, a panel to conduct hearings and document potential constitutional violations by federal officials during operations.
Pritzker has repeatedly said the Trump administration will pay the price for any abuses during its tenure. Most recently, he made the argument when Christie Noem was fired as Homeland Secretary.
“Don’t think that just because you’re gone, you’re going away,” Pritzker said in a video statement addressed to Nome. “I can assure you that you will still be responsible.”
Pritzker, a billionaire, is not afraid to tap his fortune for political reasons, including funding his own campaigns. He recently poured money into a super PAC supporting his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, for the Senate. The group, the Illinois Future Fund, has spent $14.8 million on ads supporting Stratton and Rep. Raja attacked Krishnamurti. The group’s ads also included a spot promoting Stratton’s endorsement of Pritzker, including a video of Pritzker praising her.
Pritzker’s popularity in public polls has remained stable since defeating Republican Bruce Rauner in 2018. Since then, he launched — but lost — a bid to overhaul the state’s income tax structure to shift more of the burden onto wealthier residents. He has signed a raft of legislation, from gun laws aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence to a bill that raised the state’s minimum wage from $8.25 an hour in 2019 to $15 an hour last year.
Perhaps the most controversial Pritzker initiative was his signing of the SAFE-T Act, which made Illinois the first state to eliminate cash bail statewide. Republicans have repeatedly called for the elimination of cash bail as a danger to the community.
The new system no longer allows judges to jail someone because of money. Judges can arrest people they think are flight hazards or threats to public safety.
