JB Pritzker Says Democrats Must Fight—But Dodges the Open Primaries Question

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker says the identity crisis in the Democratic Party is between those who cave and those who are willing to fight for the American public, but while he makes the case for being a fighter—the question is: Will this apply to independent voters?

Specifically, for their voting rights in publicly funded and administered elections.

Paul Rieckhoff hosted Pritzker on his podcast, Independent Americans. The two discussed several topics, including the president’s insults at the governor, his rising-star status in the Democratic Party, and the lingering threat of the Insurrection Act dangling over Chicago.

“We’re going to stand up and push back as we did before, and as you pointed out, we won in the Supreme Court about his fight to bring National Guard into the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said.

He added that he does not want the federal government “invading us for purposes other than what is good for the people of our state,” and the administration should not send in troops unless and until state governors ask.

This transitioned into a conversation about the identity crisis within the Democratic Party, as the Democratic Socialists of America continue to rise in influence. But Pritzker says recent events have shown the real divide is between “Team Cave” and Team Fight.”

“You’ve seen so many people who aren’t willing to stand up and push back,” he said.

Pritzker uses the deaths of US citizens in Minneapolis during the ICE deployment earlier this year as an example. He said he told another governor at the time that all Democratic governors should show up in Minneapolis, join protesters, and “make a statement that this is not right.”

“That governor said to me, not exaggerating, ‘you know, I am really not sure that other governors are going to want to do that. How about we have a Zoom call?’ And I thought, really? You’re missing the moment here.”

Rieckoff said he understands the distinction between “Team Cave” and “Team Fight,” but he pressed the governor on what this means for independent voters. Independents want a fighter, but millions of them are locked out of publicly-funded primary elections.

In Illinois alone, over 40% of the electorate identifies as independent, according to L2 Data compiled by the Independent Voter Project.

These voters often fly under the radar in national conversations, but with more governors speaking out in favor of open primaries, like Wes Moore in Maryland and Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, Rieckhoff asked Pritzker if he would go on the record in support as well.

However, Pritzker immediately shifted the topic to redistricting, saying that what would be better would be a national law that requires independent redistricting commissions to draw more competitive districts.

He even corrected himself when he initially said there should be more competitive primaries, because he believes the focus should be on the general election.

“I believe we should have more competitive primaries—sorry—general elections. But I think the way to do that is to make sure we got districts where there is a chance of someone from either party possibly winning,” Pritzker remarked.

Rieckoff responded from a position of essentially: why not both?

He agreed that the national redistricting bill was long overdue, but he didn’t let Pritzker off the hook on the subject of open primaries. He asserted that it is time for the “players to stop being the referees,” but the parties also need to stop running elections when they get public funding.

“We’re putting public money and using public schools and public election booths to run private primaries where all of us can’t vote,” he said. “All of that seems inequitable. We’re going to challenge it all the way to the Supreme Court and say it is unconstitutional.”

“But there is a rising movement of folks who want to be able to have an equal vote, and until the primaries are truly open and not run by the parties, we’re not going to get that.”

And yet, Pritzker never addressed the issue directly in their conversation.

He talked about how important it is to win over independents and if independent voters want change, they can swing an election or run a candidate of their own (despite his previous observation about the lack of competitiveness in the US).

But he never actually answered the question. Rieckhoff put Pritzker as a “Yes” for independent redistricting reform, but a “TBD” on open primaries. Check out the full interview above.