JB Pritzker gave the keynote address at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner Sunday night, and the Illinois governor was not pulling punches—against his own party. Instead of listening to their actual constituents, Pritzker said, Democratic lawmakers heed the words of "a bunch of know-nothing political types, ... flocking to podcasts and cable news shows to admonish fellow Democrats for not caring enough about the struggles of working families." Pritzker spoke to an audience of more than 800, the largest the dinner has seen since 2020, NBC News reports. Past presidential hopefuls have been known to attend the dinner, and Pritzker is widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender, the AP reports.
"Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption," the governor, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune, continued. (California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also seen as a 2028 contender, recently swung to the right on trans issues and called the case of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia a "distraction" from the issue of Trump's tariffs, but Pritzker didn't name names.) Pritzker, who is Jewish, also criticized Trump's deportation efforts against students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests. "Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors," he said, to a standing ovation. Pritzker did not comment on his 2028 prospects, saying in an interview that he has not yet decided on whether to seek a third gubernatorial term in Illinois. (More JB Pritzker stories.)