Pritzker wants Dems to focus on ‘making it easier to just live a little more affordably’

• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker spoke on a political podcast this week, touching on issues facing the country and the Democratic party.
• The governor believes the Democratic party should focus on issues related to affordability.
• Gov. Pritzker acknowledged a "rigged system" against working-class Americans.

The governor of Illinois has continued to garner attention with appearances on national news programs as he spoke with MSNBC this week — this time on a podcast.

Gov. JB Pritzker spoke about the Democratic party amidst the U.S. political landscape, and he talked about how he might have campaigned he if were in those shoes. He talked multiple times about “standing up for people” or “fighting for people’s rights” on the political podcast, The Blueprint with Jen Psaki.

The podcast is billed as one where Psaki examines what’s next for the Democratic party after big losses in 2024.

Psaki previously worked as the White House press secretary for Former President Joe Biden’s administration. Prior, she served as a traveling press secretary to former U.S. Senator Barack Obama as well as deputy press secretary after he became president and later serving as the deputy communications director.

Psaki asked Gov. Pritzker, if he were to have “things on the agenda of how democrats would run in 2026, what would they be?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be imposing tariffs on our friends to the north and the south,” he said.

“But what are we for? Let me start with – let’s make it easier for people to get the education that they need, go to community college to get skills that they need for a better paying job. Let’s make it cheaper for people to get their drugs. PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers) have taken terrible advantage of people who are sick – making them pay much higher drug prices.”

Gov. Pritzker went on to say that every point he would list has to do with “making it easier to just live a little more affordably.”

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“I think if we work on those all the time – if we think about what makes it a little bit easier for everybody to just survive and live – to save for retirement, to get a better job, to get a higher wage…I think that’s what the Democratic party should really be all about.”

The governor questioned why Democrats did not campaign with the point of raising the minimum wage, which is currently set at $7.25 per hour.

“You can’t live on that,” he said, adding that Republicans want to keep that number stagnant, and some want to eliminate the minimum wage altogether.

 “If you poll the question, it’s very popular. People want to raise the minimum wage,” Gov. Pritzker said.

In addition to kitchen table issues that he said should be brought to the forefront for the Democratic party, the governor talked about how he prioritizes his time in office.

“Prioritizing means asking the question, first, are we addressing the problems of the most vulnerable people and working-class people?…Second, is it something that has long-term benefit for the people of my state, or in this instance as you’re talking about, federally, for the people of the country.”

When asked to respond to the notion that some Americans feel that “the system is rigged against” them, referring to government and big businesses like pharmaceuticals, Gov. Pritzker said he mostly agreed that the “system is rigged in the sense of it leans toward not working-class people, not toward vulnerable people, but toward the wealthiest. It leans toward the powerful. So, you’ve got to counteract that.”

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He went on to highlight his efforts to advocate for early childhood education in years past.

“It was clear to me that if you wanted to make real change, you had to focus on these very young children and particularly very young children in the most vulnerable situations,” Gov. Pritzker said.

Almost no resources were going to children younger than kindergarten age several decades ago, he said.

“No one wanted to put any money in. Why? Because the powerful special interests are not with very young, vulnerable children. In fact, they have no, powerful, special interests working for them. The powerful special interests for children are in the later ages, right? Teachers’ unions and advocates for education and education reform…I had to work really hard to try to change the attitude toward that by pointing out to Republicans and Democrats that you save money by investing in the youngest children.

He said early investment in children makes them more likely to succeed in their academics and in turn, more likely to get a job and less likely to become incarcerated.

“Frankly, I’m a Democrat, in part because we’re the ones who fight hardest for those people. We are the ones who fight hardest against the rigged system.”

Tom Ackerman covers breaking news and trending news along with general news for the Springfield State Journal-Register. He can be reached at tackerman@gannett.com.