Back in April, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker became a viral sensation after telling a gathering of New Hampshire Democrats that the party needed fewer “do-nothing political types” and more eager anti-MAGA warriors.
On Sunday, a group of fugitive Texas state lawmakers gave Pritzker the chance to put his (considerable) money where his mouth is.
In a bold declaration that puts him in direct conflict with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), Pritzker vowed to protect the breakaway Democratic lawmakers from Abbott’s threats of partisan lawfare. Both men harbor national ambitions of their own and would delight in humbling Illinois’ swaggering governor on the national stage, but Pritzker is convinced he can outplay them both.
“We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them,” he said at a press conference over the weekend. “We know they’re doing the right thing. We know that they’re following the law.”
Pritzker’s swing at Abbott and Paxton is the first real-world test of the aggressive political doctrine he debuted four months ago in New Hampshire. He’s about to find out if it actually works.
The governor’s strategy isn’t entirely altruistic. Most polls and prediction markets rank him in the bottom tier of 2028 presidential contenders. At around 2 percent support, he slightly trails billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban and former professional wrestler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Despite enjoying a positive approval rating in Illinois, few outside the state could pick Pritzker from a lineup. He badly needs the jolt of media attention that a primetime fight with Abbott and Paxton provides.
He chose the right issue. Democratic voters are incensed at Republicans’ nakedly partisan scheme to protect their fragile House majority by upending the once-a-decade redistricting schedule. When GOP leaders in Florida and Missouri suggested they could soon join Texas in mid-decade redistricting, Democratic leaders, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), responded with threats to conduct their own mid-cycle adjustments.
So far, Pritzker’s political instincts are paying off. Democratic players, including the Texas Democrats and former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison heaped praise on the governor, a sentiment echoed by dozens of the Lone Star State’s state Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning political influencers.
“Every Democratic elected official in the country should take note,” Texas Democratic strategist Monique Alcala told me. “Democrats are hungry for fighters and Governor Pritzker and Texas House Democrats are showing how it’s done.”
All that praise hasn’t gone unnoticed by the other 2028 presidential hopefuls. No one is more likely irritated with Pritzker than California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). Newsom saw a showdown with Abbott and Paxton as his own path back to seriousness after his misfire of a podcast launch earlier this year. He had already responded to Texas’ redistricting threat by promising to redraw California’s congressional maps in Democrats’ favor. He even hosted some rogue Texas lawmakers of his own. So why did Pritzker steal the spotlight?
Newsom believes Democratic voters want a return to the cool, academic center-rightism of the Obama years. H has spent much of 2025 rebranding himself as a kind of irreverent, manosphere-adjacent intellectual. Instead of taking his mid-cycle redistricting fight directly to the media with a Pritzker-esque stunt, Newsom sought to position himself as the consensus thought leader among his fellow Democratic governors.
To his credit, Newsom appears to have succeeded in that, but being an elite thought leader might not be as valuable as it sounds in a party where most Democratic voters see party elites as weak and ineffective. Newsom is offering voters a professor at the very moment they want to elevate a brawler. Pritzker’s primetime slugfest with Abbott and Paxton is designed to leave no doubt in voters’ minds that he’s a brawler.
There’s also the practical fact that the billionaire governor’s stacks of cash are a more immediate help to Texas Democrats than they are to Newsom’s longer-term play. State Democrats had ruled out a “quorum bust” due to cost and logistical challenges, until Pritzker offered to finance and organize the operation. Now they give official press conferences in front of Pritzker’s campaign logo. If Pritzker wants to be seen as the party’s “can-do” Democrat, this is a great way to start.
Pritzker still has a long climb ahead if he wants to reach the rarefied ranks of a serious presidential contender. But his made-for-television rescue of Texas’ encircled Democrats shows he’s serious about making the ascent.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.
