Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker tries to chart a path for national Democrats to counter Trump

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker sits at a table surrounded by University of Illinois researchers who will soon be out of work, their lab set to lose its federal funding and close next month. One researcher, saying she feels betrayed by the government, turns to thank Pritzker.

“My husband sometimes shows me videos of you talking,” says Aline Delpomdor, a research specialist at the university’s Soybean Innovation Lab. “This was the first thing that gave me hope — that someone is speaking out. Somebody is defending us.”

Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel empire, may seem like an unlikely champion for working-class people affected by the Trump administration. But he’s taken aim at President Donald Trump’s potential tax cuts, while backing universal health care and a higher federal minimum wage.

The governor used a statewide tour this past week to present a path forward for national Democrats struggling to unify around a strategy to counter the Republican president, highlighting the effects of Trump’s early actions in Illinois. The three-day swing included meeting with farmers in a central Illinois barn to discuss agriculture and with older adults in suburban Chicago who are concerned about Social Security cuts.

While far from the center of power in Washington, the stops resemble those of a future presidential contender in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.

“How do you play a role when you don’t have a vote?” Pritzker said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s hopefully reminding people who we are as a country, in a moment when I think people haven’t really stepped back and thought enough about democracy and our history — reminding people of that, using the bully pulpit to talk about that and then rallying the troops.”

Pritzker has built alliances within the party for years as a top donor to Democratic campaigns and causes, giving millions from his personal fortune and helping candidates raise money. That includes a recent $500,000 donation that went to support the Democratic-backed candidate in next month's Wisconsin Supreme Court race, a contest with big implications for the swing state and an election seen as a test of the national political climate.

Lesser known than other potential 2028 contenders, Pritzker drew national attention in February when he used a joint budget and State of the State address to make the case for a parallel between Trump’s rhetoric and the rise of Nazi Germany.

“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 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic,” Pritzker said.

The speech stood in stark contrast to many of Pritzker's fellow Democratic governors — who, at the same time, were on their way to Washington for face-to-face meetings with the newly sworn-in president. Pritzker skipped the gathering of the National Governors Association.

Since then, the divide between Pritzker and other Democratic governors, particularly those potentially eyeing the party’s 2028 presidential nomination, has only widened.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently sat for a one-on-one meeting with Trump as she seeks to find “ common ground ” with him. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has launched a podcast in which he had friendly conversations with Trump loyalists, including Steve Bannon.

Some Illinois Republicans walked out of the chamber during Pritzker's speech. The state GOP has criticized Pritzker for overspending and helping create a migrant crisis in Chicago.

“All the while, he jet-sets across the country giving political speeches, more interested in headlines and presidential speculation than actually governing this state,” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy said.

Pritzker has not relented in his criticism of Trump. On Tuesday, the governor spoke at the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington, where he described Trump’s early months as “true villainous cruelty by a few idiots.” During his meeting Wednesday with farmers in central Illinois, he warned that their “way of life is under attack right now.”

“People will go out of business, lose jobs. And the impact on our broader economy, not just in the state of Illinois, but in the United States, could be truly devastating,” Pritzker told a barn full of farmers at a roundtable in Urbana, adding that they risk becoming “collateral damage” in Trump’s efforts.

He has not spared Democrats, either.

At the same roundtable — the kickoff of his statewide tour — Pritzker blasted the Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, and other Democratic senators who backed a Republican-led spending bill. Pritzker said their support was an “enormous mistake.”

U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., who joined Pritzker at the roundtable, said the governor is helping "localize and tell the story of what this will mean for people.”

Earlier, Pritzker stopped by the Soybean Innovation Lab, which is set to shut down April 15 with 30 employees set to be laid off.

Delpomdor told Pritzker the cuts meant “everything we have done all these years is just lost.” Peter Goldsmith, the lab’s director, called the closure of the decade-old lab “surreal,” adding, “You can’t just grin and bear it.”

“Very little thought has gone into the decisions that have been made," Pritzker said. “And I think that six months from now, if we’re good enough at this, we will have been able to make some arguments that, maybe they've gone too far.”

He also told the AP he is “optimistic because we are going to fight.”

“It’s not that I think if we all just sit back that four years will go by and everything will be fine," he said. "I think we need to put the work in, and I’m optimistic that we will.”