Pritzker talks 2028 presidential run rumors, pension reform during East Peoria stop

• Pritzker’s name has been thrown around nationally as a potential Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2028.
• The Illinois governor said pension and health care reform are among the key issues for the state.
• Pritzker also hinted Peoria’s Jehan Gordon-Booth could be on the list of names for his running mate for a third term.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he was "flattered" that his name has been mentioned in national conversations about a potential presidential run in 2028, and during a gubernatorial campaign stop in East Peoria on Thursday he did not definitively commit to serving a full four-year term as governor if reelected.

Pritzker, who announced his reelection campaign for governor of Illinois on Thursday morning, said he was running for reelection "because I want to be governor of Illinois," when asked about rumors of a potential 2028 presidential bid.

When asked again if he could definitively commit to serving a full four-year term as governor if reelected Pritzker said:

"Well, I’m flattered that people have mentioned that. You know it’s always nice to be thought of that way. Frankly, I think that’s good for the state of Illinois when people think that our leaders are qualified to be president of the United States. But I am running for reelection because I want to serve the people of Illinois. Whatever I do in the future is going to be about making sure we deliver for the people of Illinois," Pritzker said.

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Pritzker’s name has been thrown around nationally as a potential Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2028, and the Democratic governor has spent time in the last year taking the policies of President Donald Trump head on, criticizing the president on immigration and health care.

Trump has taken notice of Pritzker’s elevated status on the national stage, which included an appearance to testify before a U.S. House committee earlier this month. Trump would later call Pritzker "probably the worst in the country."

But Pritzker’s Thursday stop at Illinois Central College’s Workforce Development Center in East Peoria focused little on his battles with Washington, D.C., and more so on touting his record in Illinois, specifically workforce development.

Pritzker was flanked by a group of supporters that included Peoria Mayor Rita Ali; Peoria city councilmembers Mike Vespa and Bernice Gordon-Young; state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria; state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria; and Peoria Park District Board President Robert Johnson.

Gordon-Booth, who serves as assistant majority leader in the Illinois House, gave a rousing speech ahead of Pritzker taking the podium in which she touted the governor’s focus on workforce development initiatives that she said has pulled 15,000 people statewide and 1,200 in the Peoria-area out of poverty.

"This is a workforce environment created by a governor who cares about the people he serves," Gordon-Booth said.

Pritzker later hinted that Gordon-Booth could be on the list of names he chooses to be his running mate and serve as the next lieutenant governor as current Lt. Gov Julianna Stratton is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Dick Durbin.

More: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is running for reelection. Follow his stops throughout Illinois

"There are, as you know, some qualified people across the state, there’s one right behind me (Gordon-Booth), and so I want you to know, whoever it is I pick, it’s got to be someone who cares deeply about the people of the state," Pritzker said. "This is a job where it might not get everyone’s vote, that’s for sure, but when you win you’ve got to represent everybody and I know Jehan Gordon-Booth has done that in her job as state representative. Not everybody voted for her, but she delivers for people in this area even if they didn’t."

Pension and health care reform on Pritzker’s radar for third term

Illinois faced an "overwhelming" pension debt problem when Pritzker took office in 2019, he said Thursday before later signaling he believes pension reform needs to be addressed in the next lawmaking session in Illinois.

Municipalities around the state, including Peoria, which has a pension debt obligation of more than $350 million, are struggling under the weight of massive pension obligations owed to public safety employees. Lawmakers in Springfield have spent years tweaking pension systems but governments statewide — including the Peoria City Council — are still clamoring for relief and significant pension reform.

More: ‘The problem is going to be unbelievable’: Looming pension payments worry Peoria officials

"We’ve put forward a bunch of pension reforms and many of them have passed already, we’ve got one big one that’s still coming, we’ve got to get it done in the next session in my view but everything that we’ve done has worked to increase the percentage funding," Pritzker said. "We went from about 39% funded when I came into office to now about 47% funded, it was going the other way when I came in. So, being able to just do that is a big change, more to do."

Addressing the cost of health care, specifically pursuing reforms with health insurance, was another emphasis Pritzker put forward for his potential third term.

"Health care is too damned expensive, it just is, and health insurance companies aren’t helping," Pritzker said. "In fact, I know some of you have had this problem, you have to get prior authorization sometimes for procedures that your doctor says you need and the insurance companies turned it in. So we’ve begun to reverse that and make sure the insurance companies are required to cover some of those including emergency mental health, including mental health of all sorts, that they’ve been turning people down because they don’t see it as on par with physical health. So that’s an example that we need to work with insurance companies or else we are going to make them do what we need them to do. I think we can get a lot more done in the next four years."

More: ‘We need help’: Rising pension costs, end of Illinois grocery tax raise concerns in Peoria