"It pisses me off": JB Pritzker channels liberal anger at Trump — and his own party

JB Pritzker, a rumored contender for the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nomination, waded into the debate over Democratic resistance and capitulation on Tuesday, name-dropping one member of his state's congressional delegation but conspicuously avoiding mention of the senior Democrat who helped Republicans pass a six-month spending bill. Related How I successfully defended abortion after Dobbs While Senate Minority Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democratic "yes" votes have insisted that their party would be blamed for shutting down the government and people would suffer as a result, Pritzker and others, like Minnesota governor and former Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, argue that allowing Trump and Elon Musk to ransack the federal bureaucracy is even worse. First elected to office in 2018, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt hospitality fortune seemed an unlikely figure of progressive hope — and yet, within months of his inauguration, Pritzker signed bills to raise the minimum wage to $15, legalize the recreational use of marijuana, ban so-called "right-to-work" laws designed to hobble trade unions and codify abortion protections into state law. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism While he's still hardly the leader of a class revolution, Pritzker's success in transforming a slew of promises into law has won him some praise from left-wing publications like Jacobin and an X account facetiously called "Socialists for Pritzker," and also helped position him as a leading voice in the Democratic Party. Gavin Newsom, who has spent the past two months pinning Democratic losses on transgender rights, bantering with right-wing figures like Steve Bannon on his podcast, and distributing "burner" cell phones to favored tech CEOs.