DALLAS — Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) said during a counter-programming event on Wednesday outside the GOP’s midterm convention that any Republican taking part in the event is “disqualified” from mounting a White House run in 2028.
Pritkzer spoke at a press conference put on by the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday before the GOP confab, called “Trump-a-palozza” by some, was set to commence.
“Anybody that is showing up here and bootlicking Donald Trump, and that’s what this is all about, is probably going to be disqualified in 2028,” Prtizker told the Washington Examiner. “I can tell you that. I don’t think Democrats are afraid of anything in 2028. We’ve learned that we need to be fighting. People are joining the fight every day. I think the voters are seeing it, and they’re joining the fight. And that is why I believe that there’s no fear here.”
Pritzker, who himself is speculated to be considering a presidential campaign, downplayed his own aspirations, despite many trips to the donor-rich state of Texas.
“I’m running for reelection in Illinois, so I absolutely could be in Illinois right now,” he said. “But here’s what I think. What’s good for the people of Illinois is if Democrats win across the country, and the Congress becomes a Democratic Congress, because we’ve seen the people of Illinois have their Medicaid taken away, have their SNAP benefits taken away. We have people who are losing their homes because their jobs are going away because of tariffs, and nobody going to the grocery store can’t notice that everything has gone up in price because of the trade wars that Donald Trump has initiated.”
Pritzker, a billionaire through his family’s Hyatt Hotels chain, announced this week that he is launching a $20 million midterm elections PAC named Ready for the Fight. The governor said the money will go to help candidates and also defend against what he believed was an attempt by Trump to “steal” the midterms.
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On Wednesday, Pritzker defended the hyperbole of his rhetoric, despite criticizing Trump for making similar warnings about stolen elections.
“I think the more that people understand that everything is at stake in this election, the more likely it is that people will show up and vote,” he said. “So we’re not undermining anything. We’re actually giving people an impetus to show up because in this election, if Democrats don’t win, if they don’t win in this election, we may not have other elections, or certainly we’re going to have future elections, every single one of which will be rigged.”