(Bloomberg) -- The arrival of thousands of people in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention this week marks the culmination of years of groundwork by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to elevate the city — and himself — to the national spotlight.
Few people played a more pivotal role in luring the party’s marquee event. Pritzker’s bid team traveled to Washington four times over a year for meetings, where the governor personally lobbied President Joe Biden. And when organizers toured the city, he feted them with a party at his mansion, a dinner from Michelin-starred chefs and access to a private sound check by the rock band Metallica.
“He was relentless,” said Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s chief of staff. “I mean, truly relentless, particularly when he had one-on-one time with the president.”
Now that the convention has arrived, the billionaire governor is taking center stage at an event that has dramatically changed shape for both him and the party.
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A convention that was once a chance for Pritzker, 59, to trumpet his own accomplishments, vigor and charisma alongside an aging Biden is now a coronation for Vice President Kamala Harris. Her rapid ascension as the Democratic presidential nominee has injected new life into the race and set her up to assume the mantle of the next generation of party leadership. And while the governor’s name was among those floated for the ticket’s No. 2 spot, it’s fellow Midwesterner Tim Walz who got the call.
Pritzker’s term runs through 2026, and he’s able to seek reelection for a job that he says he loves. But he’s widely assumed to have broader political ambitions — such as a White House run in 2028 or 2032 — that would be a high-profile step up among a family that has already reached rarefied air in academia, finance, Hollywood and beyond.
No matter how this week’s convention turns out, his biggest obstacle might just be the very wealth that’s made Pritzker one of the most storied names in American capitalism. While Republicans were first to elect a billionaire president — Donald Trump — a Democratic candidate at the highest echelons of wealth could pose more ideological quandaries for a party that on paper aligns itself with the working class.
“The extraordinary wealth that Pritzker has at his disposal is a double-edged sword in Democratic politics,” said Stephen Nelson, a political science professor at Northwestern University. “He has this tie to a massive family fortune, but that will alienate some of the less business-friendly members of the Democratic Party.”
It’s a challenge Pritzker acknowledges, but believes he’s overcome before.
“You all remember that back in 2018 our party was not exactly begging for me to run for governor,” Pritzker said Monday at an event for Illinois Democrats in Chicago. “No one was crying out for a white, Ukrainian-American, Jewish billionaire. I get it, I get it. But I’m a Democrat.”
Rich Dynasty
The Pritzker family, now in its fifth generation, is worth $46.5 billion, ranking them the world’s 16th-richest dynasty, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Pritzker name is emblazoned all over Chicago and beyond: on buildings at famous universities, in parks, hospitals and libraries. Much of its wealth is built on the storied Hyatt hotel brand, founded by JB’s uncle, Jay. The governor’s sister, Penny, has already made a mark in Washington, serving as commerce secretary for former President Barack Obama.
Pritzker is a skilled politician with an earnest, punchy speaking style and a deep network. He’s championed progressive causes including gun control, abortion rights and higher minimum wages as governor, a job for which he spent more than $320 million of his own money across two elections. He has helped Illinois attract major manufacturing investments and earn a string of credit-rating upgrades. He’s equally at home pumping fists at an autoworkers union rally as he is talking up his business bona fides to tech founders.
In an interview, Pritzker said he brought the convention to Chicago to boost the area economically and offer Democrats a city with experience hosting big political events, as opposed to bolstering his national profile.
It’s “great for the city and the state, and don’t forget it also brings 50,000 people who have money in their pockets, and they come from all over the states and all over the world,” he said.
For now, Pritzker says his focus is on supporting Harris and Walz in defeating Trump. More immediately, he has to pull off hosting duties at the convention, where he’s expected to attend breakfasts with delegations and give a speech Tuesday evening. There’s room for fun, too: He’s introduced a craft brew called JBeer, and he and his wife, MK, are set to host a party featuring musician John Legend at The Salt Shed concert venue.
It’s the type of splashy event that helped bring the convention to Chicago in the first place. When the Pritzkers hosted the bid committee in the backyard of their Gold Coast mansion in 2022, actor Jim Belushi performed a harmonica solo of “Sweet Home Chicago” — a nod to The Blues Brothers, the 1980 comedy set in the city.
The next night, Pritzker and then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot served them a multi-course dinner from three of Chicago’s Michelin-starred chefs at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. That was followed by the Metallica sound check — essentially a private concert — ahead of the band’s performance at Lollapalooza.
Meticulous for details, Pritzker kept tabs on every aspect of the visit, down to their tour of convention space, seating arrangements at dinner and who was taking whom for drinks after the events, Caprara said.
As the de facto host, Pritzker will have the opportunity to be close to the people who will choose future presidential nominees, said Marc Farinella, a longtime Democratic political consultant and a senior adviser to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
“It’s widely speculated that Pritzker is interested in someday running,” Farinella said. “He may very well be well-positioned to do that.”
Record Fundraising
While the governor didn’t directly pay for the convention, Pritzker expressed willingness to tap his wide network and help spearhead fundraising, Caprara said. The DNC host committee raised $94 million, the most ever for a political convention, the group said last week.
Pritzker said he was a contributor “like other people are,” but that he wasn’t the largest donor.
Fundraising was Pritzker’s entrée into politics. He was among the biggest donors to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Penny Pritzker, meanwhile, a friend and supporter of Obama’s since the early 1990s, was finance chair of the former president’s 2008 election campaign.
Even outside Democratic politics, the family is a veritable bingo card of elitist symbols frequently targeted by the right. Penny Pritzker heads the governing board at her alma mater Harvard University. She also served in the Biden administration as a special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery.
Tom, a cousin, is chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corp., the hotel group founded by his father Jay, and chairs Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cousin Jennifer, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, made headlines for becoming the first transgender billionaire. Other cousins include movie producer Gigi, progressive-tax advocate Liesel and Linda, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher living in Montana.
Financially, the family members — descendants of Nicholas Pritzker, a Ukrainian immigrant who arrived in Chicago in 1881 — have largely gone their separate ways over the past two decades. After Jay Pritzker’s death in 1999, his succession plan unleashed a series of contentious arguments and lawsuits that ultimately led the clan to gradually sell off businesses that made them rich, or, in the case of Hyatt, taking it public.
New Deals
The Pritzkers now have few assets in common, with one exception being JB and his brother Tony’s Pritzker Private Capital, an investment firm that was spun out of their family office several years ago. (JB is not involved in operations or investment decisions and holds his assets in a blind trust.)
PPC acquires stakes in family businesses, mainly companies involved in services or manufacturing, where their expertise in navigating complexities like succession gives them an edge. The firm, which is open to outside investors, is in the process of raising $3 billion for its third fund.
As governor, Pritzker has channeled his entrepreneurial spirit into striking deals for his state. Chinese battery maker Gotion last year picked Illinois for a $2 billion gigafactory. More recent successes include luring electric-car maker Rivian Automotive Inc. to expand its Illinois plant and drawing more than $1 billion in investment for a quantum computing campus on Chicago’s South Side.
“Sometimes people look at a Democrat and they think, are you really a capitalist? I’m a capitalist Democrat,” Pritzker said at a July 22 dinner for TechChicago Week. “I’m a believer in helping companies get started and grow here in the state of Illinois and in the city of Chicago.”
While Pritzker is in his second term as governor, Illinois law has no term limits, meaning he could long be in charge of the state. In the interview, he said he’s focused on his next two-and-a-half years on the job.
And while a Harris win would likely put her on a path toward seeking the Democratic nomination again in 2028, Farinella, the longtime Democratic political consultant, says Pritzker has an opportunity to wait for his moment.
“He’s part of a deep bench the Democrats currently have in terms of future potential candidates,” Farinella said. “Eight years is not a long time horizon in politics.”
--With assistance from Miranda Davis, Janet Lorin and Kim Chipman.
(Updates with governor’s comments at Monday event in 10th paragraph)
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