Gov Manatee to run for President

First off, I regret calling Pritzker Gov Fatso. It's demaining and beneath the journalistic standards of the Report. Second I endorse him in 2028. He'll bring the great management Illinois enjoys to the federal government.

He'll also be trimming the fat in Washington. He's commited to full regiment of Ozempic.

America’s Second-Richest Elected Official Is Acting Like He Wants to Be President

Billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois is one of the top Democrats being watched as the party searches for a way out of the political wilderness

By John McCormick, WSJ

April 20, 2025 5:00 am ET

CHICAGO—If JB Pritzker runs for the Democratic presidential nomination, he will be betting his party’s best prospect is a political punch-throwing heavyset billionaire who inherited massive wealth. While that sounds like President Trump, the two-term Illinois governor would be wagering on himself.

Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has become one of the most-outspoken critics of Trump at a time Democrats are struggling to counter him. Wealth has long opened doors for Pritzker and there are signs he wants the next one to be into the Oval Office.

The 60-year-old is visiting New Hampshire, traditional home of the nation’s first presidential primary, to speak April 27 at a party fundraiser about what he sees as Trump’s authoritarianism and to call Democrats to action. The trip is likely to boost speculation that Pritzker, among those vetted by Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign as a possible running mate, is interested in the 2028 nomination.

“There is no doubt that he is going to run,” said Chicagoan Bill Daley, who served as President Bill Clinton’s commerce secretary and President Barack Obama’s chief of staff. “The real question is whether he runs for re-election first or just runs for president.”

The governor, who declined an interview, has yet to say whether he will seek a third term. An announcement is expected in the next few months, with the March 2026 primary less than 11 months away.

Daley said he would recommend against another gubernatorial bid because a crisis or scandal can pop up at an inconvenient time. Pritzker, he said, has the financial wherewithal to do something most candidates couldn’t: announce a presidential bid in 2026 and lock down the best available campaign staff talent.

Pritzker has never shied from confronting Trump. “Take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity,” he said in his Democratic National Convention speech in August.

Gov. JB Pritzker speaking at a lectern.

If Pritzker makes a bid for the White House, Republicans will likely take aim at the state’s stagnant private job sector and massive unfunded pension liability. Photo: Sophie Park for WSJ

Trump’s estimated net worth has grown significantly since 2024, according to Forbes, boosted by his social-media platform and cryptocurrency. He is now the nation’s wealthiest elected official.

The president and Elon Musk, Trump’s adviser and the world’s richest man, have thrown punches at Pritzker as well. Both have mocked his weight, with Trump suggesting last year the Illinois governor “wants to eat all the time.”

If Pritzker runs, Republicans will be certain to highlight the challenges Illinois faces. Private sector jobs have been stagnant since he took office, and a massive unfunded pension liability hangs over the state like a black cloud. Taxes are among the highest in the nation, and the state’s population has shrunk since 2020. Violent crime and struggling schools plague Chicago, a favorite target for Trump and conservatives.

“People are voting with their feet,” said Paul Vallas, a conservative-leaning Democrat who is a former Chicago public schools chief and past city budget director. “The state is an absolute disaster.”

Pritzker took over in 2019 amid a budget crisis. He has supported Illinois legislation to protect abortion access, mandate paid time off for workers, raise the minimum wage to $15 for nontipped workers 18 and older, tighten gun restrictions and invest in infrastructure.

He has aggressively recruited businesses, including in quantum computing, and worked to restore some order to state budgeting, helping prompt Moody’s to raise the Illinois credit rating three times during his tenure.

JB Pritzker and Juliana Stratton celebrating election victory.

An heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, Pritzker could potentially fund his own bid in a presidential race. Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Along with Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York and Tim Walz of Minnesota, Pritzker has been called to testify May 15 before a Republican-controlled U.S. House committee reviewing undocumented immigrant “sanctuary” status in states. The Democrats haven’t yet agreed to appear.

Other Democrats being watched for presidential ambitions include former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and at least five governors: Walz (the party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee), Gavin Newsom of California, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.

With Democrats divided over the war in Gaza, Daley said that Pritzker, who is Jewish and running a state with a large Palestinian population, should likely expect protests at potential presidential campaign events. The governor was critical of the Chicago City Council when it passed a resolution in 2024 calling for a cease-fire.

Pritzker’s fortune has allowed him more independence than most politicians because he doesn’t have to worry about fundraising. With an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion, he spent more than $300 million to self-fund two gubernatorial campaigns.

The Illinois governor was his party’s second-biggest donor in this month’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election, based on disclosure filings so far, behind financier George Soros. He has long been one of America’s top campaign contributors, helping him make political friends nationwide.

The foundation the governor started with his wife in 2001 gave away more than $50 million in 2023, the most recent tax records available show, with donations coast to coast that include a focus on early childhood development. His extended family’s massive philanthropy means the Pritzker name is on many things in the Chicago area.

Pritzker’s potential to self-fund a White House race could draw comparisons to Michael Bloomberg’s bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination. The former New York City mayor spent roughly $1 billion of his fortune on a campaign that lasted less than four months.

Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s chief of staff, said he is “deeply analytical” from his work as a venture capitalist and businessman. But, she said, he often tells business leaders “you can’t run government like business” because they have very different goals.

Aided by his funding of local candidates, Pritzker has total control of his party in Illinois and faces minimal Republican opposition. Daley called him easily the state’s most powerful politician, a role Daley’s father and brother once played as Chicago mayors.

Pritzker is known for using his wealth to boost state salaries of senior aides so he can retain the best talent. When he flies, it is usually by private jet, which he pays for himself along with carbon credits to offset the emissions.

While he grew up in privilege in California, Pritzker hasn’t had an entirely easy life. As a 7-year-old, his 39-year-old father died while playing tennis in Hawaii. His mother, an alcoholic and Democratic activist who introduced him to politics at a young age, was killed a decade later when after driving drunk she jumped from a moving tow truck after her car broke down.

In 2023, as Pritzker ramped up his national political profile, he established a nonprofit called Think Big America with a stated mission of expanding reproductive rights.

Mike Ollen, a senior political adviser, declined to say how much the group has spent, only offering that it has invested six and even seven-figure amounts in some of the nearly dozen states where it has backed abortion-rights campaigns.

The group’s name, Ollen said, was drawn in part from a theme Pritzker, who has been overweight most of his life, used in his first campaign ad for governor. That spot told voters to “think big,” a double meaning that referenced both his size and ideas.

While some Democrats have suggested support for transgender rights have hurt the party’s candidates in recent elections, Pritzker hasn’t shied away.

“There are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them,” Pritzker, who has a transgender cousin and backs policies defending gender-affirming care, said at a recent Human Rights Campaign dinner in Los Angeles. “Well, I am. We are. We will.”

Walz, who talks regularly with Pritzker, said he thinks the Illinois governor could run for a third term and then for national office. “You can do both,” he said, noting his own experience running Minnesota while campaigning for vice president.