J.B. Pritzker

J.B. Pritzker was born on January 19, 1965, in Atherton, California. He is a member of the prominent Pritzker family, which owns the global Hyatt hotel chain and is one of the wealthiest families in the United States. Pritzker was raised by parents who taught him to fight for progressive values from a young age. Despite losing both parents at a young age, he went on to become a successful businessman and politician.

Political Experience

Pritzker is a Democratic politician who was inaugurated as the 43rd Governor of Illinois on January 14, 2019. He was elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022 with the highest vote share for any Democratic governor in more than 60 years, defeating Republican Darren Bailey in the general election.

As governor, Pritzker has pursued liberal policies and developed a strong record on social and economic issues. He signed H.B. 4664 in January 2023, strengthening reproductive rights protections in Illinois following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade. He has also championed gun control measures, including an assault weapons ban, and advanced LGBTQ+ rights protections.

Notable Achievements

Economic and Fiscal Management: Pritzker balanced the state budget every year since taking office, eliminated Illinois' multi-billion-dollar bill backlog, improved pension funding, and achieved nine credit rating upgrades. He won bipartisan passage for Rebuild Illinois, the largest investment in state history to upgrade roads, bridges, rail, broadband, and schools.

Business and Job Creation: Before becoming governor, Pritzker founded 1871, a non-profit small business incubator in Chicago in 2012. The organization has helped entrepreneurs create more than 8,000 good-paying jobs and hundreds of new companies. As governor, he attracted massive new investments in electric vehicle manufacturing and quantum computing, helping Illinois' economy reach over a trillion dollars.

Education and Workforce: He raised the minimum wage to a living wage and made historic investments in infrastructure and education. Community college tuition is now free for working-class families, and the University of Illinois has become a top ten public university in the U.S. Illinois now ranks among the top five states for college readiness, with its high school graduation rate at its highest level in more than a dozen years.

Environmental Leadership: In 2021, Pritzker proposed and signed a comprehensive clean energy bill, making Illinois a national leader on climate action and the first state in the Midwest to pass a law phasing out fossil fuels. This has doubled the state's renewable energy production and created thousands of new jobs.

Social Justice: Pritzker served as Chairman of the Illinois Human Rights Commission and was a key supporter of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University. He led the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, which serves more than 120,000 students, teachers, and others annually.

Early Childhood Education: Pritzker became a national leader in early childhood education and was asked by President Obama in 2014 to help organize the White House Summit on Early Childhood Education. In Illinois, he has worked to ensure children have access to meals and education programs.