On Sunday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, flanked by former presidential candidates, urged Democrats to fiercely oppose the Trump administration and criticized his own party leaders for acting too timidly for too long.
In a speech to Democrats in New Hampshire, Pritzker criticized President Donald Trump and charged that Democratic officials have adopted a “culture of incrementalism” that has allowed Republicans to dominate the party and push an agenda that is at odds with leftist principles.
“It’s time to fight, everywhere, all at once,” Pritzker stated. “Let’s start with something that should be easy to say: It’s wrong to snatch a person off the street and ship them to a foreign gulag with no chance to defend themselves in a court of law.”
That remark sparked applause from the audience at the annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club state party dinner, which, according to organizers, drew the biggest crowd of New Hampshire Democrats since 2020: over 800 people.
Even though the presidential election is three years away, Democrats who were enthusiastic and repeatedly stood up on Sunday showed that they were eager to learn more about running for the Trump White House.
As different Democrats look for different paths in the days leading up to the next national election, Pritzker was the first event in a historic early presidential primary state to host a prospective 2028 presidential candidate.
The politician has already set down an early marker on how best to take on Trump and the GOP.
Pritzker denied in an interview that he is thinking about running for president, stating that he has not yet made up his mind about whether to run for a third term as governor of Illinois.
However, he has long been considered for the short list of 2028 candidates, and as a billionaire who has previously funded his own political campaigns, he is in a good position to run. In the years preceding a campaign, prospective presidential candidates in New Hampshire customarily attend the state party dinner.
Additionally, he has been a vocal and early opponent of Trump.
“If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and forty minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic,” Pritzker said in his state of the state address this year, shifting to issue a warning about the administration’s actions.
For many years, New Hampshire has been the nation’s top primary state in Democratic presidential elections. Under President Joe Biden, that changed in 2024, but Democratic leaders have stated that they would probably modify the calendar once again before 2028.
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Pritzker informed the Democrats that, although he had never before called for protests, he was now advocating for “disruption,” “mobilization,” and “mass protests.”
“Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.” Pritzker stated.
Pritzker went even farther in the interview, stating that Democrats should look into the activities of Trump administration officials, including who has access to private taxpayer information, if they were to regain a majority in the House.
“We’re going to hold people responsible. They can’t just get away with what they’re doing right now,” Pritzker stated. “Anybody that’s breaking the law, anybody that’s breaching the Constitution as a regular matter of the way they run their offices, those people all should be investigated if they are breaking the law. … Think about the privacy of Social Security and Medicaid records and all of that DOGE went in and just breached, as if that’s OK. How about IRS records, right? I mean, all of that.”
Earlier in his speech, Pritzker stated that Democrats should not hold the party’s support for immigrants, transgender children, and Black people responsible for their defeats in November, but rather a “lack of guts and gumption.”
“Voters didn’t turn out for Democrats last November not because they don’t want us to fight for our values, but because they think we don’t want to fight for our values,” he stated.
“What I find ironic about the current conversation surrounding our party,” Pritzker said, “is that the voices flocking to podcasts and cable news shows to admonish fellow Democrats for not caring enough about the struggles of working families are the same ones who, when it comes to relieving the struggles of real people, have been timid, not bold.”
“What I find ironic about the current conversation surrounding our party,” Pritzker stated, “is that the voices flocking to podcasts and cable news shows to admonish fellow Democrats for not caring enough about the struggles of working families are the same ones who, when it comes to relieving the struggles of real people, have been timid, not bold.”
