It’s official: Pritzker to seek 3rd term as Illinois Governor

CHESTNUT, Ill. (WTVO) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker made an official campaign announcement in his re-election bid for a third term on Thursday.

“I’m running for re-election to protect our progress and continue solving the problems we face,” Pritzker said in a campaign video.

He has not announced a running mate since Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is running for the U.S. Senate.

During his time in office, Pritzker has legalized marijuana in Illinois, raised the minimum wage to $15, codified the state’s abortion rights, and abolished cash bail. He defeated Sen. Darren Bailey in a 2022 re-election.

“When I took this stage in 2017, Illinois had gone two years without a budget.  Our credit rating was in the tank, our citizens were in the dumps, and our checkbook was in arrears.  The minimum wage was $8.25, the state’s bill backlog was $16 billion, and our pension debt seemed overwhelming.  Our roads and bridges were crumbling.  Voting rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights and human rights were all at risk,” he said Thursday.

“We took a state that forgot how to do economic development and built a white glove business attraction team that delivers jobs,” he added.

“We must reckon with the fact that everything is too damned expensive.  From groceries to concert tickets to mortgages to cars to healthcare, we have created a world where one job isn’t enough to raise kids, one salary not enough to own a home and one lifetime of work not enough to earn retirement. And the answer does not lie in tariffs that tax workers, budgets that gut Medicaid, and DOGE bros that strip research funding from our universities,” he said.

There has been speculation that Pritzker may seek a higher office, and throw his name into the mix for president in 2028.

DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick announced he was going to run for the Republican nomination for Governor in the March 2026 primary, along with Phil Perez, of the Posen Park District Commission, and Joseph Severino, a capital management professional.

To kick off his campaign, the Governor will tour Illinois on Thursday, including stops in Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, and Springfield.