Pritzker Dominates to Win Second Term, Ramps up National Speculation
Gov. JB Pritzker waves to supporters after being declared the winner in the race for governor Tuesday night. (Photo: Chicago Tribune)
Four years after winning a decisive victory over incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner, JB Pritzker secured re-election with another runaway win, this time over conservative southern Illinois Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia).
With around 95% of precincts reporting (around 4:30 a.m.), Pritzker led Bailey by around 430,000 votes, 54%-43%. Pritzker is close to matching his 54.5% share of the vote in 2018 and will only be the second winner since Illinois gubernatorial races moved to presidential midterm years to garner over 2,000,000 votes. (He has 2,070,981, compared to around 2.5 million in 2018.)
Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, put $110 million of his own money into his campaign this year, and made millions more in contributions to other candidates.
In his victory speech, Pritzker made direct reference to beating back spending from billionaire Republican donors Richard Uihlein (who funded Bailey and the third-party PAC run by radio host Dan Proft) and Ken Griffin (who funded Richard Irvin’s primary campaign).
“Two of the nation’s biggest MAGA Republican billionaires, along with their teams of political grifters, spewed lies and innuendo and you showed them that Illinois is a state that stands up for working families and rejects their selfish agenda,” Pritzker said in front of a roaring crowd of supporters.
“To the people of Illinois, thank you for placing your trust in me to carry out this mission for four more years,” Pritzker said. “I won’t let you down.”
Pritzker then widened the angle of his speech, seemingly aiming toward the MSNBC crowd nationally as he potentially eyes the race for President if Joe Biden doesn’t seek re-election.
Pritzker attacked Republicans, calling them filled with hate and “treasonous insurrectionists” who broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“Until the Republican Party is ready to expel the extremists in their midst, we need to do it for them at the ballot box,” Pritzker said. “You don’t get to wave a moderate flag from your front porch while you’re having a picnic in the backyard with insurrectionists.”
He also took aim at former President Donald Trump, who is expected to announce an effort to regain the presidency in the coming days.
“To the fake patriots and their enablers: you don’t love the United States if you’re not willing to defend it against a man who would destroy it,” Pritzker said. “Donald Trump is the modern embodiment of tyranny that our founders feared the most. So don’t lecture us about norms or typical political practices. Against a party that nominates anti-Semites, and racists, and anti-immigrant zealots, appeasement and complacency do not work. You know what works? Winning works.”
Pritzker is the first Illinois Governor to win a second (full) term since Rod Blagojevich in 2006, though Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office in 2009 and didn’t finish his second term. Jim Edgar is the last Illinois Governor to serve two full terms, from 1991-1999.