JB Pritzker, Christian Mitchell

Candidate Q&A

Why are you running?

As governor, I have worked to restore our state’s fiscal foundation, lower costs for working families, and protect Illinoisans’ rights at a time when the president is hellbent on undermining them. I want to keep Illinois moving forward to continue our progress. 

Before I came into office, decades of fiscal mismanagement and a dysfunctional Republican governor led to service cuts, underfunded schools, and 24 consecutive credit downgrades. The state owed nearly $17 billion in unpaid bills. 

Since then, my administration has eliminated our bill backlog and delivered eight balanced budgets and 12 credit upgrades. By restoring our fiscal foundation, we have funded government services sustainably and saved taxpayers money. 

I have also fought to address affordability challenges exacerbated by the Trump administration. By increasing the minimum wage, creating and doubling the child tax credit, canceling more than $1.1 billion in medical debt, capping insulin costs, eliminating the state grocery tax, and taking on companies raising home and auto insurance rates, we have put more money in families’ pockets. 

I have also stood up for civil liberties, reproductive freedom, and voting rights. When Donald Trump put Illinois in his crosshairs, I fought to keep the National Guard off our streets. When Trump’s Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade, I worked to make Illinois a safe haven for women making their own healthcare decisions. And when Trump and MAGA Republicans made voting harder, I worked to make it easier in Illinois. 

I’m ready to continue this critical work with my running mate, Christian Mitchell, in a third term.

What do you think is the most pressing issue facing Illinois residents and how do you plan on addressing it?

Thanks to the chaos coming from the federal government, everything is too expensive for working families. Raising wages and lowering the everyday cost of living for Illinoisans is job one. I believe working families deserve good-paying jobs that allow them to enjoy their lives with their loved ones. As governor, that’s exactly what I am fighting for every day.   

I have put more money in families’ pockets by increasing the minimum wage, creating and doubling the child tax credit, canceling medical debt for more than 500,000 everyday Illinoisans, capping insulin prices, eliminating the state grocery tax, and taking on companies to stop them from jacking up rates of home and auto insurance.   

In my third term, I will continue to prioritize lowering costs for Illinois families. We need to bring down the cost of housing by creating much more of it, and I’ve already provided much needed down payment help for first time homebuyers. I enacted laws that bring down energy costs by expanding Illinois’ electric generation capacity, but we need to continue this work to lower electricity bills even more. 

I look forward to building on this record and continuing to deliver a more affordable Illinois for working families.

How would you attract more businesses to open in or relocate to Illinois?

Since day one, I’ve been laser focused on bringing businesses to Illinois and keeping our economy growing. We cut taxes for 400,000 small businesses, streamlined permitting so it’s faster to start a business here, and supported over 41,000 small business owners through our Small Business Development Centers. Our incentive programs have helped bring tens of billions of dollars in private investment to this state while creating and retaining hundreds of thousands of jobs. Illinois’ incentive programs put new projects through a thorough analysis to make sure taxpayers get a real return on investment in exchange for any tax relief. And if companies don’t deliver the jobs and investment promised, they don’t get the tax incentive.   

Illinois had a failing economic development program under Governor Rauner, so I reorganized and launched a new and better one. As a result, Illinois is now ranked second in the nation for corporate expansions and inbound relocations by Site Selection Magazine for the fourth consecutive year. And in CNBC’s Top States for Business list, our state has risen from 30th to 12th in the nation, and Illinois now has more jobs than ever before in Illinois history.

What approach should the state take when it comes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions?

Every law enforcement officer should focus on the job they’re given. It’s the responsibility of the federal government to manage immigration, and local and state law enforcement should be focused on public safety in our communities. Anyone caught in the commission of a crime should be held accountable, and that’s what we do in Illinois.  

What we saw during Operation Midway Blitz was unprecedented. We had masked and poorly trained federal agents brutally occupying our streets in unmarked vehicles, detaining U.S. citizens and legal residents using profiling tactics and terrorizing communities. They killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez right after he dropped his children off at daycare and then lied about it. They shot Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old teacher and U.S. citizen, for protesting from inside her car and then lied about it. Even though Donald Trump and his cronies said they were coming for “the worst of the worst,” the majority of those detained had no criminal record and were not committing any crimes.   

We should arrest anyone committing a crime, and we should deport undocumented people who are convicted of violent crimes. We should also demand that justice is done when law enforcement officers carry out violent raids and use dehumanizing tactics. I established the Illinois Accountability Commission to gather evidence on every illegal action by federal agents and their supervisors during Operation Midway Blitz to hold them accountable. I will keep fighting to keep our communities safe and protect the dignity of our residents. 

How should Illinois address the rising costs of health care?

I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and I’m proud of the fact that more Illinoisans have health insurance in Illinois today than before I took office. I erased more than $1.1 billion in medical debt for over half a million Illinoisans at almost no cost. I capped insulin at $35 a month and cut prescription drug prices while expanding healthcare access.  

At a time when Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, gut Medicaid, and take coverage away from millions of Americans, I will continue to fight to protect Illinoisans’ healthcare and work to make it more accessible.

What approach would you take on tax policy and what is your top priority?

When I took office, my Republican predecessor had consistently refused to propose or sign a balanced budget, leaving our state’s finances in ruin. Without raising the sales tax, corporate income tax, or individual income tax, I have passed eight balanced budgets and achieved 12 upgrades of our credit rating, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in interest costs. I’ve prioritized fiscal responsibility while also building back a government hollowed out by my Republican predecessor, improving education, healthcare, and economic development. I eliminated the state sales tax on groceries and lowered taxes on families with children and childless workers 18-24 and 65 and over. 

Over the next four years, I hope to continue moving our state forward, to sign more balanced budgets, and to lower costs for working families. The last eight years have shown that Illinois can do those things without increasing state income or sales taxes.

How should Illinois address shortfalls in public pension funding?

When I took office, Illinois was facing serious fiscal challenges that left taxpayers and working families carrying the burden, but through discipline and responsible budgeting, we’ve stabilized our finances, balanced eight consecutive budgets, delivered 12 credit upgrades, and strengthened our pension systems to the highest level since the Great Recession. 

Since taking office, I have made stabilizing Illinois’ pension systems a central component of restoring the state’s financial health. The state has made full pension payments every year, contributed $700 million above required levels, consolidated hundreds of police and firefighter pension funds into just two, and extended the state’s pension buyout program twice, saving Illinois taxpayers billions of dollars.  

I’m committed to building on this progress and continuing to move toward full pension funding to ensure long-term stability for the people of Illinois.

Is the funding system for public education in Illinois currently working? What would you change?

I have enacted record levels of school funding, and as a result, there’s an opportunity to lower property taxes if school boards will act. We have more teachers now than ever before, and we have lowered our student-teacher ratios. Among the results are that Illinois now ranks as the fifth best state in the nation for pre-K-12 education according to U.S. News & World Report — and seventh in education, according to CNBC. Let’s not stop improving until we’re first in the nation. Our students have among the highest eighth grade NAEP math and reading scores in the country. I believe a high-quality education is the foundation of a stronger state. As governor, I’ve looked at every opportunity possible to improve education.   

One of my most important responsibilities as governor is fiscal stewardship. That means I have to ensure the state is funding schools and other government services in a way that is sustainable in the long term.   

How would you describe the current state of your party and what changes or new approaches would you like to see your party adopt?

Democrats are fighting to lower costs and to put money in people’s pockets. We’re fighting to raise the minimum wage, like we did here in Illinois, and provide working families with a wage they can actually afford to live on. We’re supporting unions so workers have the right to bargain for better wages. We’re addressing high costs — eliminating the state grocery tax and establishing the child tax credit while lowering homeowners and auto insurance rates. 

Right now, it’s about Team Fight versus Team Cave. And I’m Team Fight. It is time for us to refocus on who we are — fighters for working class families and the most vulnerable. I am a Democrat because we are the party that stands up for the middle class and those striving to get there. We believe that everyone deserves healthcare, that we’ve got to have quality public education available to every kid in this country, and that we must protect a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions. I’m a Democrat because we believe that we’ve got to stand up for our democracy and against the MAGA Republicans who are literally trying to take away people’s rights all across this country.   

This is this most important election of our lives. Democrats need to win for the working families of this nation.