Politics
JB Pritzker Says It Was an Honor to be Vetted for VP Spot Despite ‘Grueling, Long Process’
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at a news conference in Chicago on Aug. 6, 2024, prior to signing a bill aimed at giving more Illinoisans who leave a correctional facility access to a free state ID. (Credit: Illinois.gov)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was in Chicago Tuesday morning for a bill signing, rather than heading to Pennsylvania to join Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail as her new running mate.
Pritzker was among a handful of Democrats that presidential nominee Harris seriously considered to share the ticket with her.
“You don’t get on that list unless they think you actually could be president of the United States, and do the job if you had to,” Pritzker said.
Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz instead, following a vetting that Pritzker called a “grueling, long process.”
“I was glad that I made it through that process, made it to the final number of candidates,” Pritzker said, adding that “I really do love being the governor of Illinois, and so I was very torn during this process, about being a participant in it. Not because I don’t support Kamala Harris, I do 1,000%, and I will be out there campaigning for her at every turn whenever I have time to do so.”
That Pritzker harbors national ambitions has long been an open secret, and one that he hasn’t done anything to dissuade.
When questioned by reporters on Tuesday, Pritzker said he hadn’t made any decisions about running for governor again in ‘26, nor has he put thought into serving in a potential Harris Cabinet.
“It’s not something I’ve contemplated,” Pritzker said of a possible Cabinet post. “I really do love the job that I have.”
Pritzker said as governor he’s able to make a difference, including with the measure he just signed into law, which makes it easier for formerly incarcerated people to get a driver’s license or state ID.
“We have a lot of work to do for the state of Illinois,” he said.
Illinois Republican Party chair Kathy Salvi was among Republicans framing Walz as too progressive, but in a statement Salvi indicated he was a better choice than Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt fortune who has spent millions of dollars on his campaigns for governor.
“At least Americans can breathe easy knowing that Illinois’s own out-of-touch leftist billionaire governor JB Pritzker won’t be a heartbeat away from the Presidency anytime soon,” Salvi said. “With leftists like these headlining the Democrat ticket, President Trump’s message of secure borders, safe streets, and prosperous communities will win in November.”
Pritzker had previously been coy about his interactions with Harris and her campaign, but opened up some on Tuesday.
“Getting through all the way to the end and having a kind of a last interview at the end was an honor,” he said. “Along the way, as you can imagine, the decisions get made. And so every time you get a call saying ‘here’s another thing we’d like you to engage in and talk to us about’ means that you’re still in the process, and that you know, you’re somebody that they value enough to have you around to the very end.”
He said he spoke with Harris “several” times over the past couple of weeks, as well as with members of her campaign team.
“The process is one that attempts to weed out, can you be somebody’s support mechanism, right, to be the No.2. Can you bring, you know, another set of advice to the table that’s valuable?,” Pritzker said. “It’s an honor to be asked, even if some of those questions are like a colonoscopy.”
The colonoscopy reference harkens back to a saying that going through the screening to be a vice presidential candidate is so invasive, it’s like having the medical procedure without painkillers.
Pritzker and Walz were both elected as governors in 2018 and went through a National Governors Association training “euphemistically referred to as baby governor’s school” together, Pritzker said.
“He and I met there and we hit if off immediately. We have each other’s cell phone numbers, we talk to each other on a fairly frequent basis,” Pritzker said. “We went through COVID together, and he did an outstanding job.”
Pritzker said he called Walz Tuesday morning, and though he hadn’t yet heard said that he expects he will, “because that’s just the kind of guy he is.”
Salvi called Walz a “radical leftist from deep blue state who will continue the disastrous Bidenomics policies crippling the nation's economy as we speak.”
Pritzker pushed back at the attack, saying that Walz will help motivate White suburban women to vote for Harris given that Walz “has been a pro-choice advocate for his entire career that brought school breakfast and lunch to the children of Minnesota. That he has in every way demonstrated that he is trustworthy and a person of integrity.”
“That’s a heck of a lot more than you can say for the vice presidential choice that Donald Trump made” in U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the governor said.
Walz, a two-term governor and former congressman who previously served in the Army reserves and taught high school, chairs the Democratic Governors Association, another position that Pritzker said he hasn’t contemplated should Walz leave it vacant.
Serving as DGA chair takes an enormous amount of time, Pritzker said.
“(Walz) did a great job,” Pritzker said. “In some ways, you know, I’m sorry that we’re going to lose him. On the other hand, I’d like him to become the next vice president of the United States.”
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
