JB Pritzker Running for Third Term as Governor of Illinois
The incumbent will have to select a new nominee to be his Lieutenant Governor running mate.
Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, has today decided to run for re-election in 2026. If successful, he will become the first Democrat elected to three consecutive terms as Governor in the state’s history. The video announcing his re-election campaign can be found here.
The 2026 cycle for Governors will see 36 contested races. Both Republicans and Democrats currently hold 18 of these seats. However, ten Republican Governors are term-limited or retiring as opposed to only six for Democrats.
Pritzker, 60, has served as Governor of Illinois since January 2019. The state doesn’t have term limits for any of its statewide executive offices. Voters will elect its Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Comptroller, and Treasurer in 2026 - in addition to its federal races for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
A member of the wealthy Pritzker family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain, Pritzker has an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion. Across his career, he has started several venture capital and investment startups - including the Pritzker Group Private Capital, 1871, ChicagoNEXT, the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, PECO Pallet, and Clinical Innovations.
Pritzker’s political career began as a legislative staffer to U.S. Representative Tom Lantos and U.S. Senators Terry Sanford and Alan J. Dixon during the 1980s. In 1998, he campaigned for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives after 17-term Democratic incumbent Sidney R. Yates retired. In the three-candidate primary, Pritzker finished in last place with 20.5% of the vote. He was later selected to chair the Illinois Human Rights Commission from April 2003 to July 2006.
In 2018, Pritzker ran in the Democratic primary for Governor of Illinois. In the six-candidate primary, he secured the nomination 45.1-26.7-24.4 against State Senator Daniel Biss and former Chair of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees Chris Kennedy. He selected State Representative Juliana Stratton to run on his ticket as his Lieutenant Governor nominee. The pair flipped control of the state’s top executive office with a 54.5-38.8 victory against Republican incumbents Bruce Rauner and Evelyn Sanguinetti. In 2022, Pritzker and Stratton were re-elected by a 54.9-42.4 margin against Republicans Darren Bailey and Stephanie Trussell.
For his 2026 re-election campaign, Pritzker will have to select a new running mate to serve as his Lieutenant Governor if he wins. Stratton is currently running in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Dick Durbin. In that contest, she is competing against U.S. Representatives Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi. Notably, Stratton has the endorsements of Pritzker and the state’s other U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
No Democrats expressed interest in running for Governor of Illinois before Pritzker made his decision today. Most of the attention has been focused on the Senate race. In the Republican primary for Governor, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick, Posen Park District Commissioner Phil Perez, and former congressional candidate Joseph Severino have launched campaigns.
During the 2024 presidential election, Democrat Kamala Harris carried Illinois with a 54.4-43.5 victory against Republican Donald Trump. This was the ninth consecutive win for the Democratic ticket in Illinois during presidential contests. Nevertheless, Harris’ victory represented a 6.0% shift to the right since the 2020 presidential election.