(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has had a hand in widely backing Democrat candidates in largely red states where he and the national party feel there’s a chance they could pick up more seats.
Pritzker’s political action committee, the Ready for the Fight PAC, is targeting districts that either lean Republican or are competitive to expand the Democratic Party’s map – especially in the House of Representatives.
Pritzker, who also serves as chair of the PAC, seeded the committee with at least $20 million for the 2026 midterm election.
The billionaire governor, who is running for a third term, denied questions of him launching the PAC to raise his national profile ahead of a long-rumored 2028 presidential run.
“This is perhaps the most important year ever for us to elect Democrats to Congress, and that’s what I want to help do because what’s good for the state of Illinois is if we have a Democratic Congress. The Congress currently following Donald Trump has been awful for the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
But Pritzker has taken to states across the country for a variety of fundraising events and conferences – especially in recent weeks – to give remarks about key issues for voters like affordability.
Last week, Pritzker went to South Carolina, the first state scheduled for the Democratic primary election in 2028, to speak at an NAACP event.
The governor has also shared remarks highly critical of President Donald Trump and his administration, spoke at pro-abortion PAC events and more.
At an annual luncheon for Personal PAC, which supports pro-choice candidates, Pritzker quickly remarked about Trump and abortion policies.
“I’m not going to spend much time at all talking about Donald Trump because it can ruin a perfectly good meal for all of us. But I do need to get something off of my chest. There are too many women in this country who are living under the yoke of tyranny with a state government that is too close to being like Gilead in A Handmaid’s Tale. Even people who claim to be pro-choice are afraid to say that abortion is health care,” Pritzker said.
The Ready for the Fight PAC has backed candidates in states like Texas, Ohio and Florida.
In a recent campaign email, Pritzker referred back to a group of Democrat state lawmakers from Texas who fled to Illinois to avoid a vote on redistricting the state, which ultimately passed.
Pritzker said that state lawmakers James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa – respectively running for the U.S. Senate and governor in Texas – need “a groundswell of support from across the country,” before asking Democrat supporters in and outside of Texas to assist both candidates by either door knocking or phone banking.
Pritzker’s PAC has also backed the candidate opposing U.S. Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, who has been under pressure from Republicans and Democrats to resign after his ex-father-in-law, Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, of Ohio, accused him of abusing Moreno’s daughter.
Pritzker has also spent at least $1.6 million in television ads in Nashville and Memphis for congressional races.
The PAC’s Youtube page also includes attack ads against GOP candidates in New Mexico’s, Alabama’s, and Arkansas’ second districts.
