JB Pritzker

Multibillionaire Pritzker Takes 2nd Oath as Illinois Governor

Pritzker, who turns 58 this month, leaned on a variety of financial successes during his second gubernatorial campaign in the fall, in which he received 55% of the vote over Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey.

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J.B. Pritzker, the multibillionaire whose actions over the past year have suggested he may be eyeing a run for president, took the oath of office as Illinois governor for the second time on Monday.

The Democrat is the first Illinois governor to start a second four-year term since 2007. No governor has served two full terms since Jim Edgar left Springfield in 1999.

Pritzker, who turns 58 this month, leaned on a variety of financial successes during his second gubernatorial campaign in the fall, in which he received 55% of the vote over Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey.

Bailey was one who took notice of Pritzker’s possible look beyond the Land of Lincoln, beseeching the governor in two televised debates to join him in signing a pledge to serve a full term if elected. He was reacting to Pritzker’s summertime trip to the early presidential primary state of New Hampshire and his raising millions of dollars for Democrats nationwide. Pritzker has said he has no plans to run and supports President Joe Biden for reelection.

But in his Election Day victory speech, the second-term governor appealed to a broad constituency, barely mentioning Illinois while indirectly lambasting former GOP President Donald Trump, who will seek a second term in 2024. The second-term governor criticized Republicans for failing to “treat the disease” and letting it fester into “insurrectionists tearing down the doors of the U.S. Capitol.”

Pritzker, an equity investor and philanthropist whose family founded the Hyatt Hotel chain, is the nations 310th richest person, with a net worth of $3.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In 2018, the son and nephew of the Hyatt hotel chain’s founders was swept into office largely on voter dissatisfaction with then-GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, whom they blamed for a two-year budget stalemate with Legislative Democrats that stalled state services and flooded account books with red ink.

Pritzker has overseen paying down a mountain of debt, including $17 billion in overdue bills to vendors at one point. He steered the state through a rocky bout with the deadly new coronavirus, and signed laws to eventually eliminate carbon-generating power production and increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2025. And despite an unsteady economy in the last year, he boasted of a fourth consecutive balanced budget: This fiscal year will end with a virtually unprecedented $3.7 billion surplus.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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