Gov. JB Pritzker hails Harris, hammers Trump in DNC speech

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker used his prime-time address on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to tie the progressive policies he’s advanced in two terms in Springfield to the message of economic progress promoted by the party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir who was a driving force behind bringing the convention to his hometown, also used his stage time to assail Republican nominee Donald Trump, with whom he’s sparred throughout his time in office.

“Donald Trump thinks we should trust him on the economy because he claims to be very rich,” said Pritzker, whose fortune Forbes has pegged at $3.5 billion. “But take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity.”

In a bit of awkward programming, Pritzker’s speech was preceded by Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who railed against the “billionaire class” and “the need to get big money out of our political process.”

“Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections, including primary elections,” said Sanders, who received a more enthusiastic reaction than Pritzker from the United Center crowd.

Pritzker spent more than $300 million of his own money to win two elections as governor in Illinois and gave at least $27 million to the Democratic Governors Association two years ago to spend on boosting his preferred opponent in the 2022 GOP primary for governor.

After Pritzker’s speech, the DGA sent out a fundraising message in his name soliciting $3 contributions.

Touting infrastructure improvements, clean-energy investments and a recently signed measure eliminating the state’s grocery tax that has yet to take effect, Pritzker said, “More than anything, Democrats want economic policies that are kind, not cruel, but Trump chooses cruelty every time.”

A major proponent of abortion rights, particularly through his national dark money group Think Big America, Pritzker made an economic argument for enacting policies that protect access to reproductive health services, along with LGBTQ rights and stricter gun control measures.

“I meet with business leaders all the time, and there’s one universal thing they all need: people. They need more workers to fill all the jobs they have, but anti-freedom, anti-family policies of MAGA Republicans are driving workers away,” Pritzker said.

“Here’s the thing. Americans don’t want to be forced to drive 100 miles to deliver a baby because a draconian abortion law shut down the maternity ward,” he said. “Americans want the hope of giving birth through (in vitro fertilization), not the fear it might be taken away. Americans with LGBTQ kids don’t want them facing discrimination at school because the state sanctioned it. Americans want to go to their neighborhood grocery store and not have to worry about some random guy open-carrying an AR-15.”

Tuesday’s roughly 8 minutes in the national spotlight was a long time coming for Pritzker, who’s been active in politics for decades despite first being elected in 2018.

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Previously discussed as a possible successor to President Joe Biden, Pritzker was on Harris’ short list of potential running mates, though he was passed over in favor of a fellow Midwestern governor, Minnesota’s Tim Walz.

In his speech, Pritzker praised Harris and Walz for having “spent their lives lifting people up, not pushing them down.”

“They know that a White House that leads with kindness looks at someone who is struggling and sees not what they might cost society but what they might create for it,” Pritzker said. “Americans want policies that give every American a chance to make it to the middle class.”

Pritzker framed the Nov. 5 election as “a choice … between the man who left our country a total mess and the woman who has spent four years cleaning it up.”

“And I think it’s time we stop expecting women to clean up messes without the authority and the title to match the job,” he added. “Vice president was a good title for Kamala Harris. But you know an even better one? President of the United States of America.”

Highlighting Illinois’ “presidential pedigree,” from Republican Abraham Lincoln of Springfield to Democrat Barack Obama of Chicago — who was set to deliver the keynote later Tuesday — Pritzker also claimed Harris, who spent a small portion of her childhood in downstate Champaign-Urbana, for the Prairie State.

Before Biden dropped out of the race last month and backed Harris, Pritzker’s DNC speech was shaping up as the potential soft launch of a 2028 presidential campaign.

Instead, the convention’s de facto host spent the first two days of the quadrennial gathering answering questions about whether he’ll run for a third term in 2026.

“Of course it’s always a possibility,” Pritzker told Politico’s Jonathan Martin in an interview ahead of his speech, though the governor said it was years away.

In an interview with the Tribune on Tuesday morning, Pritzker elaborated on an earlier remark that he had some “concern” about Biden’s electoral chances.

“It was really just a concern that if we don’t win, we’re going to end up with Donald Trump, and if Joe Biden isn’t able to perform in the debate, where you have the best chance of showing the contrast, then it would be challenging in the general election,” Pritzker told the Tribune. “Having said that, I supported Joe Biden through and through, to the very end.”

Pritzker told Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in an otherwise lighthearted video segment filmed last week and posted online Monday that he had some concerns about Biden’s reelection prospects following the president’s shaky debate performance in June.

“A lot of us were concerned about the direction of the election and whether Joe Biden was going to be able to be competitive, because the polls weren’t looking good,” Pritzker said during the Daily Show appearance.

On Tuesday, Pritzker told the Tribune, “I love Joe Biden, so watching the debate performance felt like, you know, he’s going to get harmed in the election by what happened in the debate, even though he’s somebody who’s fought his whole life for the things Democrats care about.”

After his speech Tuesday, Pritzker was scheduled to host a party at the Salt Shed, featuring Grammy Award winner John Legend.