Viewed by many as a dark horse candidate, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has not been selected to serve as Kamala Harris’ running mate.
Harris announced Tuesday that she had chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate. Elected to Congress in 2007, he has served as the governor of Minnesota since 2019.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear rounded out the field of six finalists vetted by Harris’ team last week under an accelerated schedule.
The vetting was led by former Attorney General Eric Holder and Dana Remus, a former White House counsel for President Joe Biden. Remus also serves as an outside legal counsel for the Harris campaign.
The Sun-Times first reported Pritzker was called by the Harris campaign on July 24 and asked if he was interested in being considered for the role. He then underwent extensive video interviews on July 29 and 31, as well as a final video interview on Aug. 2.
Despite reports that all six finalists would be interviewed in person in the final weekend ahead of the selection, Pritzker did not have an in-person interview.
Besides Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, those considered by Vice President Kamala Harris (top left) as her running mate were (clockwise from top center) Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The vice president and her new running mate will campaign next week in battlegrounds Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
The Illinois governor was among six finalists vetted by the campaign. The vice president eventually picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the fall presidential election, where they will face former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is still in the mix, along with three other governors, a senator and a member of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker met virtually with Kamala Harris’ vetting team on Monday and Wednesday, according to a source with direct knowledge of the meetings. The Democratic governor began submitting vetting materials last week and has been asked for follow-up materials.
U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley is a Pritzker fan, but knows the pragmatic choice is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. “There’s no way a Democrat wins in November this year without Pennsylvania. And Shapiro is very popular east-to-west in a massive state.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is just 8 days old, and she’s squeezing the search for a running mate, which traditionally takes weeks, into days.
The Sun-Times first reported the Harris campaign called Pritzker Wednesday about the possibility of serving as her running mate, but the Illinois governor told reporters that Harris’ campaign “did not call me yesterday.” The Sun-Times stands by its story.
Harris’ campaign called the governor to discuss the No. 2 spot on Wednesday, a source told the Sun-Times. “I’d be reluctant to make a change, but it’d be hard to resist a call and consideration if the nominee called me to ask to be considered for vice president,” Pritzker said on CNN.
As part of the intensive vetting process, Pritzker’s team submitted answers to a lengthy questionnaire, and they were also asked to submit everything from press releases to extensive financial information.
Pritzker’s history of self-funding campaigns would have helped Harris fill in any fundraising gaps, although so far, Harris has raised more than $310 million, the biggest haul of the 2024 election cycle.
Since kicking off his first gubernatorial campaign in 2017, Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune, has poured $323 million directly into his two campaigns. Another $27 million was given to the Democratic Governors Association in 2022, to help pay for ads that helped him boost his more conservative challenger, Darren Bailey, whom he considered to be a weaker candidate.
Pritzker’s finances came under scrutiny during his 2018 campaign. He maintained that all offshore holdings under his name were created by his grandfather and were used for charitable disbursements. And amid reports that shell companies were recently created with offshore accounts, his campaign said any distributions made from the family’s trusts were directed to charity and Pritzker never received a personal disbursement from any trust located offshore.
He also also poured millions into Think Big America, the tax-exempt non profit advocacy group he created last year to combat anti-abortion initiatives in red states.
In 2017, the Sun-Times reported that Pritzker bought a historic mansion next door to his own in the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood, let it fall into disrepair — and then argued it was “uninhabitable” to win nearly $230,000 in property tax breaks.
In 2018, Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard recommended in a confidential report that Pritzker received more than $330,000 in tax breaks, in part by removing the toilets. Blanchard called it a “scheme to defraud” and recommended Pritzker pay back the money.
Voters nevertheless opted for Pritzker over former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, the one-term governor who oversaw Illinois government during a nearly three-year budget impasse that decimated the state’s finances.
Pritzker in 2022 defeated Bailey by 13 points. The Associated Press called the race within a minute of polls closing.
Pritzker has attacked former President Donald Trump’s policies since his first gubernatorial campaign, and in 2020 took to national airwaves to frequently criticize Trump’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The governor in April 2020 accused Trump of “fomenting some violence” and stirring up protests that would lead to more deaths, as Trump urged states to liberate themselves from the stay-at-home order meant to stop the deadly virus. Pritzker has remained a strong Trump critic ever since.
The governor also led efforts, along with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, to bring the Democratic National Convention to Chicago. Pritzker is likely to have a speaking role at the convention, which begins Aug. 19.
Pritzker has presidential aspirations, although a Harris win in November would mean he would have to wait a bit longer to launch a full-fledged presidential campaign. It’s unclear whether he plans to run for governor for a third time in 2026. There are no term limits for governors in Illinois.
Just before midnight Tuesday, the Democratic Party issued a statement announcing that after a five-day round of online balloting by delegates, Vice President Kamala Harris had secured 99% of the votes.
The online voting process doesn’t end until Monday, but the campaign marked the moment Friday when she crossed the threshold to have the majority of delegates’ votes.
The revamp of the convention, kicking off Aug. 19, includes moving away from a heavy use of pretaped pieces, which had been in the works while President Joe Biden was the nominee, to doing more of the convention live.
The shortened session was full of incendiary comments from the ex-president, including claims of undocumented immigrants taking “Black jobs” and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of “only promoting Indian heritage.”