CHICAGO – Governor JB Pritzker announced his re-election campaign, pledging to continue to get big things done for working families and keep moving Illinois forward. The announcement comes with the release of a new video “Keep Illinois Moving Forward,” where the Governor makes the choice clear between our historic progress here in Illinois and the chaos in Washington – direct from the center of Illinois in Chestnut.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
“These days, Illinois is standing at the center of the fight: the fight to make life more affordable, the fight to protect our freedoms, the fight for common sense,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We don’t just talk about problems. In Illinois, we solve them. Because we know government ought to stand up for working families and be a force for good, not a weapon of revenge.
“I’m running for re-election to protect our progress and continue solving the problems we face. I love this state, and it’s the honor of my life to serve as your Governor – to help lead through the most challenging of times and celebrate the most joyful ones together. I’m ready for the fight ahead. So, whether you’re at the center of Illinois, or anywhere else, join me, let’s keep Illinois moving forward.”
Governor Pritzker’s announcement comes on the heels of signing his seventh balanced budget, ushering in an era of fiscal stability in Illinois that has led to nine credit upgrades and the elimination of nearly $17 billion in unpaid bills. This success has allowed Illinois to invest in core priorities including tax relief for working families, record funding for early childhood education, K-12 schools, and higher education financial aid, and healthcare affordability.
With newfound fiscal stability, the Governor has made transformative investments in infrastructure and secured major economic development wins for the state. Illinois is now a leader in the industries of the future like quantum and electric vehicle manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs and bringing billions in investments to our communities.
Thanks to the Governor’s leadership, Illinois remains a symbol of hope and freedom as we face down Donald Trump’s attacks, with abortion rights and civil rights enshrined into law and protections for our LGBTQ and immigrant communities stronger than ever before. Keeping Illinoisans safe remains the Governor’s top priority and with a ban on assault weapons, bump stocks, and ghost guns and historic investments in violence prevention, communities are safer and more prosperous.
Through it all, the Governor has never lost sight of the promise he made in his first campaign – to put Springfield back on the side of working families. In passing a $15 minimum wage, mandating paid leave, and enshrining worker protections into law, the Governor has made clear he will always fight for the working people of Illinois.
Governor JB Pritzker kicked off his re-election campaign with a rally at Grand Crossing Park in Chicago, the site of the Governor's initial campaign launch in 2017. The Governor's remarks were as follows:
Good morning, Illinois!
Thank you so much to Michelle and Brandon for their kind introductions!
Every experienced elected official will tell you, all good political speeches begin with gratitude. I feel that today. I see so many people deserving of my deep appreciation and my everlasting thanks. I see supporters and staff who have been with me since the very first day of my very first campaign for governor. I see friends and allies who have become part of our family along the way.
I see in your faces the battles we have won for the people of Illinois, the struggles we have lost, and the hope that we all carry together for our future – a hope that is at times brave and brash and essential. I’ve needed every single one of you on this journey, and I will spend a lifetime being grateful that you have shown up for me and for our state — so many times, in so many ways.
That’s especially true of our irrepressible and irreplaceable First Lady. From the moment I met her 37 years ago, I started falling in love with her. What I have learned during the many years we’ve been married is that true love will continually find new roots upon which to anchor and grow.
I thought I knew all the ways I loved MK – I had watched and learned from her a real partnership in marriage, in raising our kids, and in building the lasting foundation of a happy life together. But then we started down this crazy adventure of running for Governor and serving our state, and my love for my wife found new anchors. I see her smiling at families watching the parades, or bidding against me for the prize steer at the state fair, or sitting across from me at our kitchen table advocating for incarcerated women, or writing a book about our state’s history and the Governor’s mansion — I see this beautiful, accomplished woman, the mother of our amazing children, has found in this experience new ways in which to make this world better – and all I can think is — no man has been as lucky as I am to be loved by a woman like her.
There’s no greater expression of our love than my 2 children Teddi and Donny. Being the children of a sitting governor is not an easy task. After 7 years in office and more Dad jokes than they can count, I love them more than ever for their willingness to share me with the people of Illinois.
All great journeys begin with small, risky steps – and then a leap into something much bigger than yourself with hope that the weight of your expectations and the magnitude of your obligations together become the fuel that lifts a rocket — and not the ballast that sinks a boat.
A little over eight years ago, I stood on this stage in this room — my hair a little less gray, my kids a little younger, my wife seemingly undaunted — and announced my campaign for Governor of Illinois.
When I picked Grand Crossing as the site of my kickoff event in 2017, there were a few in the press that noted that this is the location of a famous train wreck. I hated the cynicism inherent in that observation. After all, the city of Chicago is built on top of the ashes of a famous fire. I came here then, and I come here today, knowing that no place should have to live its future in the shadow of the most tragic hour of its past. Every community’s story deserves new life in a new age. So too a state.
At that first campaign announcement I felt all the gravity of the expectations and obligations of the office I was seeking that day. I knew I was an unlikely candidate. I knew I had a lot to prove. I knew that there were some standing in that crowd looking at me thinking – this guy?
During that first campaign, I was initially greeted by the voters with a skepticism shaped by a history of shady politicians — along with a real, begrudging desire to elect a Governor who would make things better for working families. I think you all know me well enough by now to know I like waking up with something to prove – it keeps at bay the creeping apathy that infects so many politicians these days.
That fuel drove me to every corner of the state — to show up for more meet-and-greets and candidate forums than I could count. And that fire gave me the audaciousness to ask a State Representative and discerning policy wonk — who had slayed a pro-Rauner Democrat and was endorsed by Barack Obama — to become my running mate. Juliana Stratton is a fighter for children and working families and is now the first Black Lt. Governor of Illinois.
When I took office in 2019, I was determined to treat this state and its people with the dignity and care and respect that was long overdue. As Governor, I wanted to prove to people that our problems were solvable, our people were applaudable, and our accomplishments were laudable.
I wanted to set a standard for my successors that if you desire to hold this office, you must be first in line to sing our state’s praises and last to belabor her shortcomings. I want it to be the expectation and not the exception that if you want to be Governor of Illinois – well then you better love her like she deserves.
Through three presidential administrations, two polar vortexes, and one Chicago Pope… through butter cows, Bud Billiken parades, and budget battles…through the Chicago River turning green and the Chicago suburbs flipping blue… through seven State of the State addresses ——— through a spring when we lost Roe v. Wade and a summer when we lost George Floyd and a fall when we lost the White House …through friends and family gunned down in both Highland and Hyde Parks…through the long days of COVID where time seemed to slow down and then speed up and then stop altogether…through all the moments of grief, all the flashes of joy, all the high highs and the low lows…through every challenge and every triumph…I have grown to love Illinois even more.
I have wished that the times we live in would approach a little more gently. I have wished that the crises we faced would come a little less frequently. I have wished that our little section of history, the timeline we have been blessed and cursed to carry, could be a little more ordinary and a little less extraordinary.
But I have never once, in the past seven years, wished that I was not fortunate enough to be your Governor.
And when the burden of responsibility has felt heavy, well then I remind myself that tremendous pressure can shape beautiful things.
When I took this stage in 2017, Illinois had gone two years without a budget. Our credit rating was in the tank, our citizens were in the dumps, and our checkbook was in arrears. The minimum wage was $8.25, the state’s bill backlog was $16 billion, and our pension debt seemed overwhelming. Our roads and bridges were crumbling. Voting rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights and human rights were all at risk.
We had political leadership that seemed to delight in putting Illinois down to get ahead. They had only one story to tell about our state, and they told it with relentless pessimism backed up by a series of lies.
I knew our story could be different when we removed those who pretended their prophecies of misfortune were foreordained — as opposed to self-fulfilling.
And I was right.
I have spent seven years immersed in the minutiae of state government. I relentlessly dived deep into our state budget and pensions, diligently examined our state’s capital needs, and closely scrutinized our state agencies. I talked to Springfield’s old hats and its newcomers. I spent many hours walking the main streets of our small towns and the trails of our state parks. I sat down with the owners of businesses, big and small. I learned how to positively impact the sausage making in Springfield.
I became a student — an outsider — observing all things Illinois.
And what I found was not irreversible injury…but rather unforgivable neglect.
The good news is neglect can be fixed. We proved it.
We took two years of no state budget and transformed it into seven years of balanced ones.
We inherited a multi-billion dollar bill backlog and paid it off.
We turned 21 credit downgrades into 9 credit upgrades.
We took an $8.25 minimum wage and raised it to $15.
We saw our infrastructure crumbling and got to work fixing it.
We took a state that forgot how to do economic development and built a white glove business attraction team that delivers jobs.
We needed to fight climate change by building more renewable energy, so we went to work to triple it.
We knew education needed to be world class, so we nearly doubled MAP grants, raised teacher pay, improved community colleges and invested in early childhood.
We saw health insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers taking advantage of Illinoisans, so we became champions for healthcare reform and reduced prescription drug prices.
We needed to protect reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights and labor rights and voting rights, so we accomplished all of that.
We needed to right old wrongs, so we legalized and decriminalized marijuana.
We needed to fight violent crime, so we hired more police, and invested in violence prevention.
We needed to ban assault weapons, so… we banned assault weapons.
We needed to rewrite our story, so we did.
We became something new — even while we honored what was old. We reminded everyone that wonderful things have grown in the ruins of train crashes and great fires – that significant wreckage can often spawn significant reinvention.
Our quantum campus rises where US Steel once fell. Rivian is expanding where Mitsubishi once closed.
The Thompson Center is — now home to Google.
The seeds of success have taken root.
When I was first elected, I told you I was prepared to be a happy warrior on behalf of our state, even if it meant going it alone. I suited up to face the carnival barkers and misery spelunkers and doom grifters. I handed out optimism like a shot of Malort – as a swift jolt to the heart.
But it turns out that Illinoisans of all shapes, races, sizes, backgrounds, sports allegiances, professions and political persuasions were ready to be happy warriors too. Sometime over the last 7 years, I looked up, and realized I was surrounded by an army.
There is power in saying out loud – the story of Illinois is not set in stone. We can rewrite it when we choose. And we should justifiably feel proud of who we are, where we come from, and where we are trying to go.
I ran for Governor in 2018 to change our story.
I ran for Governor in 2022 to keep telling our story.
And I am running for Governor in 2026 to protect our story.
Because our story is now one of fiscal responsibility, of social accountability, of modern adaptability. Our story values love over hate, courage over fear, kindness over cruelty. Our story doesn’t have a cult telling us what to believe, or sycophants telling us what to say, or a king telling us what to do.
Let me be clear: There is no Mission Accomplished banner to stand under today. Yes, we have addressed so many of our old problems – but new ones always arise. History is an endless relay race. Our job is not to look for the finish line but to protect the baton as we run our assigned leg.
But we have work to do. I have work to do.
We laid a fresh foundation down over an old crumbling house. Now we must build a new and stronger structure. Because earthquakes are coming.
Our nation sits on the precipice of an economy that will be reshaped over the next few years by the innovations of artificial intelligence. And while there will be many ways in which AI makes us better and healthier and more efficient as a society – it will also require us to reform education to meet the future of work.
In that context we must create an American economy whose sole purpose is not to make a small amount of very rich people richer but rather one that provides good, stable middle class jobs that pay enough to afford to buy a house, raise a family, and live a fulfilling life.
We must reckon with the fact that everything is too damned expensive. From groceries to concert tickets to mortgages to cars to healthcare, we have created a world where one job isn’t enough to raise kids, one salary not enough to own a home and one lifetime of work not enough to earn retirement. And the answer does not lie in tariffs that tax workers, budgets that gut Medicaid, and DOGE bros that strip research funding from our universities.
Instead, the answer starts with growing Illinois’ economy – with relentlessly pursuing the industries and jobs of the future. We must continue the work started by my administration to attract and grow businesses. That takes continual investment in world class airports and railroads, peerless institutions of higher learning, protected fresh water, abundant clean energy, well designed urban landscapes, and nutrient rich rural farmland.
But nothing is more important to grow our economy than the quality of our people, and we must protect that because we have a workforce that is second to none.
We have built a state that protects basic freedom, that guards people’s privacy, allows teachers to teach uncensored history and doctors to treat patients without threat of jail, that gives women control of their own bodies, that permits private companies to create diverse, strong, inclusive teams because they know that’s what will allow them to grow. The workers of today and tomorrow choose Illinois because we built an iron wall around their freedoms — and because we told the fascist freak show fanatics to run their experiments on ending democracy somewhere else.
We must reckon with the fact that we have a broken healthcare system in this country and despite universal recognition of the abuses of insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, we are not doing enough to curb their malpractice.
Republicans have attacked healthcare for so long that sometimes Democrats forget that we were once the champions of healthcare reform. We let Republican talking points and insurance money creep into policy making. And the public has suffered as a result.
So last year, in Illinois we prohibited prior authorization for mental healthcare and banned junk insurance plans that cheat consumers. This year we reigned in pharmacy benefit managers so we could lower prescription drug prices, and we put a plan in place to provide to ordinary Illinoisans a cure for sickle cell anemia that previously was only available to the ultra wealthy.
But there is so much more to do. How about allowing doctors and patients to make their treatment decisions free from interference by insurance executives? — or making mental health care as accessible as physical healthcare? — or making available to everyday Illinoisans the next round of groundbreaking new cures for everything from cancer to diabetes to Alzheimer’s?
To the lobbyists for the insurance industry and nursing homes and pharma companies, money can’t buy you love in my administration. Come to the table with ways to fairly and more affordably serve your customers’ needs – or be forced to do so. I will not get tired of this fight – and I will be relentless because our families can’t take it anymore.
Illinois, we have made big progress over these last seven years – but we have big challenges ahead. And while it is certainly tempting to lay all of this at the feet of the megalomaniac narcissist in the White House and his malignant clown car in Congress, the hard truth is, we all share some of the blame.
For too long, politicians have chosen what is safe over what is bold. It's time to take our cues from the young people showing up and shouting out that you can't abandon the fight before you even start it —fear of failure is not an excuse to never even try. We have remained tethered to past policy accomplishments and weighed down by past policy failures. We are too UNWILLING to embrace the vision and drive and energy of new leaders when our old ones refuse to adapt. Change must and will come.
But our morals, our values, ought never be as thin as the paper on which we print our polls. If you stood up for diversity, equity and inclusion when it was easy – then you’d better be standing up for it now, when it’s hard. If you protected the rights of the LGBTQ community and immigrants and Black and brown people two years ago, well then you’d better not abandon them today. Because let me tell you something – of all the unbecoming qualities that Americans hate in their politicians – they hate cowardice the most.
I’d rather lose standing up for what I believe in, than win by selling out those who believed in me.
And I’ll reserve my disgust not for the most vulnerable people in our society, but for the politicians and talking heads who would sacrifice them on the altar of their own ambitions.
Frankly, this country was better off when we evaluated politicians based on the quality of their governing rather than the quality of their tweets.
And I would remind those who embrace a political brand that eschews kindness – that no government in history that centered itself in cruelty has been remembered kindly.
Who I am and what I stand for is not a “bit.” I don’t really care what the DC dinner circuit thinks about my unabashed defense of democracy and courage and kindness. My convictions were forged here with you, and they stand in service to Illinoisans. This state and its people helped shape this country, and the last time we faced an existential threat to our nation, it was a son of Illinois who kept us together.
What an honor…what a privilege it has been…to hold a job where my highest obligation…my greatest responsibility…is to love this place I call home.
There are no greener pastures than those of the Prairie State. There are no greater people than those of the Land of Lincoln — no greater fight than the one to protect the working families here.
I’ve often ended my speeches with one impassioned question…one plea to the soul of our state…and as I embark on a campaign to keep Illinois moving forward…I ask you that question once again…
Are you ready for the fight?
Illinois…are you ready for the fight?
God bless our country. God protect our troops in this perilous time. And God bless the great state of Illinois.
Thank you.
