It’s 2025, but it’s starting to feel a little like New Hampshire’s 2028.
That’s because JB Pritzker, a two-term Democrat for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Yoleunala, has been a solid blue Midwest Democrat who has come to New Hampshire this weekend to find the headline for the party’s biggest annual fundraising gala.
Pretzker, who became one of the party’s most vocal critics during the first three months of his second tour at the White House, is considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2028.
And a trip to New Hampshire – a trip to New Hampshire that has been holding its first primary in White House competition for over a century, and is considered an early indicator of politicians’ interest in running for presidency in the next election.
This is a Democrat who may eventually run for the White House in 2028
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was interviewed by Fox News Digital at the New Hampshire delegation’s breakfast at the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago on August 22, 2024 (Paul Steinhauser)
“We have to be ready for the fight,” Pretzker said when asked what his message would be when Fox News Digital gave his keynote speech at the New Hampshire Democrat Party’s annual McIntyre Shaheen 100 Club Dinner.
The governor, who owns the Hyatt Hotel chain and a member of the Pretzker family, who has launched several of his own venture capital and investment startups, argued that the nation is “in a constitutional crisis” and that “too many people will be negatively affected by Trump administration policies.”
“This is the moment when people get up and fight,” he added.
The 60-year-old Pretzker is the first potential Democratic president to hope to visit New Hampshire, or other early early states, as Democrats lost their White House and their Senate majority and failed to seize the House in November.
And Trump and Republicans benefited from key parts of the Democratic base, including blacks, Hispanics and young voters.
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These set-offs led to the Democrats experiencing an increase in party tensions, accompanied by itching rage and vibrant bases to fight Trump. That rage has been directed not only on Trump and Republicans, but also on Democrats, and many have been shaken up the fundamental party upset that the leaders have not been able to speak up enough or loudly to rebel against the president.
It also led to reflection on what Democrats represent and how that direction moves forward amid favorable ratings in the referendum.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, another well-known Democrat who is likely to have national ambitions in 2028, said in an interview with “The Hill” earlier this week that he is not sure what the party really represents.
“I don’t know what the party is,” Newsom said. “I’m still struggling with that.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom, the top Democrat representative in the 2024 presidential election, will speak to voters on July 8, 2024 at the highway rest area in Hookset, New Hampshire.
Asked if he was struggling too, Pretzker said, “I have made my whole life clear. The Democrats stand up for workers. They stand up for working families. We are the Civil Rights Party. We are the Human Rights Party.
Pretzker, who won’t be prevented from being run for reelection in 2026 by term restrictions, has yet to say whether he will bid for Illinois’ third term steering. But the clock is ticking, with submissions open later this year, with the state primary just 11 months away.
Check out the latest Fox News reports and opinions on JB Pritzker
“Given the circumstances surrounding him getting on the ballot for people, I’d have to make a decision and announce it by the latest July,” Pretzker said when asked about his schedule for making his decision.
But that’s the possibility of a president who Pretzker is grabbing the headlines.
Illinois Governor JB Pretzker said he will decide by July whether he will seek re-election in 2026 (AP via Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune, Pool)
“He’s definitely not a man who is a man of his own right,” Chicago’s Bill Daly, who was former President Bill Clinton’s secretary of commerce and former president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, told The Wall Street Journal last week. [Pritzker] I’m going to do it. ”
Asked about Daily’s predictions, Pretzker said, “I think it reminded me that when I first ran for the governor, he didn’t support me… I don’t know where he’ll get the information.”
And regarding the possibility of launching a national campaign in the 2028 election cycle, Pretzker said, “What I can tell you is that I’m focusing on defeating Donald Trump’s policies, whether I run for reelection as governor.”
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The governor is no stranger to New Hampshire. He had the headlines for the 2022 New Hampshire Democratic Treaty and returned to the campaign last September on behalf of then-President Kamala Harris. Pretzker has created several stops, including addressing union members at the New Hampshire AFL-CIO’s annual Labor Day breakfast.
Pretzker was one of those rejected by the Harris presidential campaign and could be a running mate.
The governor who led a successful effort to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was one of the potential White House candidates to speak during the New Hampshire Democrat Delegation’s Daily Breakfast Convention Week.
The sign outside the state’s capital building in Concord, New Hampshire, highlights the state’s precious position when holding the state’s presidential primary for the past century. (Fox News – Paulsteinhauser)
“For many New Hampshire Democrats, he said,” said Jim DeMers, a veteran New Hampshire-based Democrat. [Pritzker’s] The visit will be an early audition in 2028. ”
“When voters are really looking for leadership, they’re the one who challenges what Donald Trump is doing. So what he says is going to be very heavy,” he added.
Demars, who has pointed to a handful of trips to the Granite states in Pretzker over the past few years, said, “Every time I visited with New Hampshire voters, he delivered a very resonant message.”
“Pritzker is in a very political state at the right time because of how Democrats are fired and charged by President Trump,” said Neil Lebesque, a longtime director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College.
And he pointed out, “We will begin the first visit of multiple visits by multiple potential candidates, given that Democrats are hungry for opposition.”
The Pretzker visit is the first visit as the 2028 White House race is underway, but there is already action behind the scenes.
A granite state-based democratic strategist who sought New Hampshire activists to remain anonymous to share more freely that they received regular fundraising emails from some of their potential 2028 candidates.
“Every week I get 12,” the strategist says, with messages from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Governor Andy Besher, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and California Ro Kanna,
The strategist said the possibility of White House hopefuls is to “driving messages and their names through this constant barrage of email.”
The Pretzker stop may seem very early, but it actually happens later in the calendar than the first stop in the early voting state of the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will speak at a breakfast hosted by the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, on March 26, 2021.
Former Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo later served as CIA director and then Secretary of State in Trump’s first administration, speaking in Iowa in late March 2021.
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Pompeo had been harshly looking at running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before deciding to launch the campaign, but was the first of a potential Republican White House hopeful to have a cycle of initial voting primary and visiting one of the Caucus states.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
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