JB Pritzker embraces billionaire persona as an asset to progressive policy goals

CHICAGO — What could have been an awkward moment on the national stage instead offered Gov. JB Pritzker a chance to embrace his identity as a billionaire — and what he sees as its power to advance policy help for those who have been far less fortunate. 

The second-term governor’s remarks during the second night of the Democratic National Convention followed those of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who argued that "billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections."

The sequence could have been uncomfortable for Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune who self-funded his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, spending $171 million and $167 million, respectively.

Pritzker has also thrown campaign cash to an array of other candidates and causes, including more than $24 million to the Democratic Governor’s Association in 2022. The organization subsequently ran ads that boosted his preferred Republican opponent, former state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia, in the primary.

But when he took the microphone Tuesday at the nominating convention he fought hard for Chicago to host, Pritzker embraced his billionaire persona.

"Donald Trump thinks we should trust him on the economy because he claims to be very rich," Pritzker told Democratic delegates, taking aim at the former president who is running against Vice President Kamala Harris in November. "Take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity."

While some on social media noted the juxtaposition, the line proved to be a crowd-pleaser inside the United Center, where the convention events are held. It also signaled how far Pritzker has come since his first campaign for governor, when he courted Democratic primary voters skeptical that a man who inherited billions would truly advocate for the interests of working people.

Over the past 5 1/2 years, evidence suggests that Pritzker has earned the support of rank-and-file Illinois Democrats through a steady stream of progressive policy achievements.

Throughout this week in Chicago, he’s sought to win over the thousands of convention delegates who traveled here from across the country and millions watching at home.

Pritzker has acknowledged his vast resources, using them both to qualify his criticism of fellow wealthy politician Trump and to push for progressive causes, namely abortion rights.

This was the message Wednesday when Illinois’ governor served on a panel discussion organized by Think Big America, a group he founded last year to advocate for abortion rights in states where the issue is on the ballot.

Pritzker and three other panelists, including Sarah Graza Resnick of Illinois-based abortion rights group Personal PAC, discussed the landscape for abortion rights initiatives on the ballot in 2024 and the larger fight for reproductive rights.

Much of it has been fought on a state-by-state basis since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a difficult task since every state has different laws governing ballot initiatives. And in some, the option is not available, which means the focus turns to directly supporting candidates.

"Think Big America has the breadth and capability to do all of those things," Pritzker said, referring to the nonprofit organization he began funding last year to advocate for abortion rights outside of Illinois.

Ballot initiatives are “huge endeavors that need more than just money," he added.

That said, money is a big part of it.

Since 2023, Think Big America has given or committed at least $3.5 million to support pro-abortion rights ballot initiatives and candidates.

This includes $1 million apiece in Arizona and Nevada and $500,000 apiece in Florida and Montana, according to spokeswoman Christina Amestoy, who confirmed that Pritzker is the primary funder of the organization. All those states have an initiative on the ballot this November. 

"These ballot initiatives are expensive," said Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of the group Reproductive Freedom for All. "So all the investment that all of our donors and our ally groups and institutions are making in these states are really important."

Kelly Hall, executive director of The Fairness Project, said that, for example, "it takes a lot of work to communicate that this is on the ballot in every media market in Florida, which is huge, and is vital to access across the entire southeast."

"We live in a very siloed, bifurcated media market now," she added. "You gotta find all of those niche podcasts, radio shows, TV stations I’ve never heard of, and communicate to people who are with us but don’t know about this opportunity."

Pritzker has previously defended using vast sums of money on politics, whether on his own campaigns, abortion rights or the failed 2020 ballot initiative that would have changed Illinois’ income tax structure from flat to graduated rates. 

He did so again earlier on Tuesday in a conversation with POLITCO’s Jonathan Martin. 

"You guys like to criticize me for spending money to win reelection or election, but I had three billionaires put money up against me — like hundreds of millions of dollars against me, right?" Pritzker said.

Pritzker was referencing former Gov. Bruce Rauner, who spent more than $70 million of his own money in the 2018 campaign and conservative megadonors Ken Griffin and Dick Uihlein, who contributed significant sums to Republican opponents of Pritzker.

"All three of those guys were gunning for me," Pritzker said. 

Griffin gave $50 million to Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s failed GOP gubernatorial campaign, which came in fourth place in the 2022 primary. The donor had previously pledged to give up to $200 million to Irvin in a general election against Pritzker.

 "Apparently he’s done well as a hedge fund manager, but not so good as a political prognosticator," Pritzker said. "In fact, you should bet against people he supports because every single person he supports has lost."

Meanwhile, Illinois delegates on Wednesday heard from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul along with a slew of leaders of the state’s labor movement. 

Buttigieg, who met his DePaul graduate husband Chasten in Chicago and proposed to him at O’Hare Airport, told delegates that "it feels good to be in Chicago and it feels good to be with a winning Democratic Party."

He then told them to be confident in their convictions.

“We got to remember that for some reason, Democrats have this habit of sometimes feeling like our views must be unpopular. The reverse is true,” Buttigieg told delegates.

“Americans agree with us that it is the wealthy who are not paying their fair share and the middle class it needs a break, not the other way around,” he said. “Americans agree with us that in a free country, you are free to join a union and get a good day’s wage and benefits for a good day’s work.”