Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker won reelection Tuesday night, securing a third term and setting him up for a possible 2028 presidential run.
The Associated Press called the race for Pritzker shortly after polls closed in Illinois at 8 p.m. Pritzker beat Republican Darren Bailey in a rematch of 2022, when Bailey also lost to Pritzker by over 12 percentage points.
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The Illinois Democrat has not said whether he would launch a bid for 2028, but has been among the long list of rumored candidates. He crisscrossed the country with Democratic candidates, as well as donating to a handful of campaigns and funding advertising buys across the map in the 2026 cycle.
“What I can say is that because that election is so important, I’m going to work my tail off to make sure that we have a Democrat who will win, and make sure that that Democrat does in fact win, and I’ve done that in every presidential election, really, since I was an adult and able to vote,” Pritzker said when asked about a possible 2028 run on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “So I’ll continue on that path, and I’m excited about the prospects, though, of the election that’s just two days from now, when I believe that Democrats will take the House and the Senate.”
He also flexed his political muscles in the 2026 Democratic Senate primary in the state, where his hand-picked candidate, Juliana Stratton, won.
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Pritzker, a billionaire, has self-funded the better part of all three of his campaigns, and his nearly unlimited pockets could make him a force in the Democratic presidential primary if he chooses to run.
According to Forbes, Pritzker’s net worth is $4.2 billion as of Monday. He is an heir to the family fortune from Hyatt Hotels and also ran a private equity firm until 2017, when he divested.