Last week, as Townhall has been covering, Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) made some rather concerning remarks. "These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace," Pritzker declared to thunderous applause last Sunday, when he was giving the keynote address at a New Hampshire dinner. Prtizker has continued to make similarly troubling remarks. Now, he’s receiving praise from a columnist over at The Washington Post, who has also praised him before.
"This billionaire could unify the Democrats against Trump," read the Tuesday morning column from Perry Bacon Jr., which was featured by RealClearPolitics that same morning. When he does reference Pritzker's alarming remarks, it's in the fifth paragraph, and to praise such language.
He even calls for more Democrats to echo that language, specifically to be "aggressive," in comparison to how other key Democrats have been:
But even as the administration destroys federal agencies and ignores judicial rulings, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, both Democrats from New York, have to be begged by activists to say or do anything really aggressive.
Not Pritzker. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace,” the governor said in a speech last week in New Hampshire.
Other Democratic politicians should echo that language if they truly understand how destructive Trump’s first 100 days have been and want to motivate those opposing him.
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In contrast, Pritzker went to New Hampshire to call for a more fervent resistance. The Granite State has one of the first primaries, so the media gives outsize attention to what politicians say there. Regardless of whether Pritzker runs for president, he is smartly using speculation about his potential candidacy to bring more attention to his anti-Trump stance right now.
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How "aggressive" are Democrats supposed to get here? And to what length are Trump's critics meant to be "motivated," especially since they've turned to drastic measures before. Last year, now President Donald Trump faced two assassination attempts.
It's no surprise that Bacon is a fan of Pritzker, given that in March he featured him in a list of top Democrats who were "show[ing] the party how to resist Trump." In his first paragraph of this most recent column, Bacon mentions that Prtizker is "one of [his] favorite politicians," even though he's worth $4 billion. The first sentence is about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, though he is worth a considerable sum of money and owns multiple homes. Sanders was also on the list back in March.
Bacon's piece praising Pritzker further showed the ways in which he's rooting for the man, making it even more likely he'll run for president in 2028, which Bacon also addresses even more clearly from there, as well as reasons why he wouldn't be the most ideal:
Secondly, Pritzker, 60, is fighting on all fronts. Even progressives in the Democratic Party have been somewhat reluctant to speak out against Trump’s assault on diversity and inclusion initiatives, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and other social justice causes, believing (without much evidence) that such stands were a big reason Democrats lost last year. But Pritzker isn’t falling in with Democrats’ usual pattern of distancing themselves from marginalized communities whenever the party loses an election.
“Do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants — instead of their own lack of guts and gumption,” Pritzker said in his New Hampshire speech.
Similarly, in a March speech to activists with the Human Rights Campaign, a group that advocates LGBTQ+ rights, the governor said, “I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist.”
He continued: “Well, I am. We are. We will.”
Third, Pritzker is using his status as a governor and potential 2028 candidate in a uniquely valuable way. California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, and other Democratic governors and potential presidential candidates are being circumspect about the president. They are wary of Trump cutting spending in their states and perhaps trying to position themselves to appeal to swing voters in 2028. But it hurts the Trump opposition to have those governors pulling their punches, because they are some of the most influential and high-profile figures in the party.
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Pritzker is a somewhat surprising figure to be at the forefront of Democratic politics. If he were a Republican, Sanders and others on the left might be attacking him as an oligarch. The Pritzker family founded the Hyatt hotel chain, so JB inherited a ton of money and then became even richer through his work in private equity and venture capital. He used his enormous wealth to self-fund a 2018 gubernatorial campaign and won reelection in 2022.For a party desperate to win support outside of cities and blue states, Pritzker isn’t an ideal leader, since he has spent essentially his entire adult life in the Chicago area. And Pritzker doesn’t have the charisma and looks of the last Chicagoan (Barack Obama) who was elected president.
Put all that together, and I am not sure he’s the best Democratic candidate for 2028.
But it’s only 2025, and he’s great for the party now. Because of his wealth, the governor isn’t reliant on big donors, who are often overly cautious and centrist.
And Pritzker can be a unifying figure among Democrats because he isn’t tied to either the party’s left wing or its centrist one. As governor, Pritzker has pushed fairly traditional Democratic policies, such as raising the minimum wage, expanding abortion rights and banning assault weapons. Pritzker says he understands why Sanders and others on the left are wary of the super-rich.
It's easy for Prtizker to hold such a take, especially given that he runs such a bright blue state, albeit poorly. We'll see what that means for him winning a potential primary, though it does help that he has all of that money.
Considering that the entire country saw the rightward shift that it did last November, even and including for Washington state, there actually is evidence that this leftward shift caused Democrats to lose so handily. We'll see what 2026 and 2028 bring, especially if Democrats don't learn their lessons, and worse, keep it up with the inflammatory rhetoric.
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