Gov. JB Pritzker helped push Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton across the finish line for her Senate primary win, and his endorsement boosted Margaret Croke for state comptroller too.

But the billionaire Democratic governor on Wednesday brushed aside national press coverage casting him as Illinois’ kingmaker, as Pritzker weighs a presidential run and gears up for another battle with Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey.

“Juliana won this because she traveled the state. She went and won people over, and I think her authenticity, her genuineness is what broke through,” Pritzker told the Sun-Times after flexing his political muscle on election night.

“I believe that the voters understood that all of that negative advertising that got run against her was not real, that they believed who she is, that she stood up and had bold ideas. She told people she’s going to go fight for them, and they understood that she’s been fighting for them here in Illinois,” the governor said of his two-time running mate who campaigned on their record together.

“She did this on her own. I wasn’t out on the campaign trail with her. I went to maybe a few places where I was asked to go. But I’m really proud. I watched her as a candidate — people reacted so well to her.
And I think she frankly outshined the other candidates, and that’s why she won,” Pritzker said.

Still, he helped amplify Stratton’s message in the home stretch of primary season, shaking hands alongside her and appearing in ads that were bankrolled by a super PAC he funded to the tune of $5 million. That helped her maintain footing despite being vastly out-fundraised and outspent by U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s campaign, and opponents in the cryptocurrency industry spending some $10 million against her.

With unprecedented super PAC dollars flowing into Chicago area congressional races this year, Pritzker said he’s felt a responsibility to tap his own fortune to counter major spending by outside forces.

“We have a system that isn’t working, but it’s one where you can’t unilaterally disarm. And meanwhile, here we had all these special interests who had for-profit motives, some of them had a motive about some single issue that they’re focused on, and it brought tens of millions of dollars into the state of Illinois that had nothing to do directly with the candidates,” Pritzker said. “From my particular point of view, trying to counteract that is what we ought to be all about, and it’s what I’ve tried to do throughout my career.”

With a clear path charted to Washington for Stratton through the general election against Republican nominee Don Tracy in deep-blue Illinois, Pritzker can take at least some credit for elevating the state’s second-ever Black woman senator, whether he or not he publicly acknowledges that — or his possible White House ambitions.

Instead he says he’s laser-focused on his rematch with Bailey, who wiped out the GOP governor field just like he did four years ago before losing mightily to Pritzker, who didn’t have a primary opponent in his bid for a third term.

In his primary victory speech, Bailey slammed Pritzker as an elite “who decrees from the top down and looks down on the people who actually make this state work.”

The downstate farmer also positioned himself as a changed candidate from 2022, reflecting that the deaths last fall of his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a helicopter crash “changed me forever.”

Pritzker has shared condolences to Bailey’s family following the immeasurable tragedy. But he said voters won’t find a new man atop the Republican ticket.

“[Bailey] has said himself he needed to change his message. He’s been saying that all along… He’s never said he’s going to change his views, and he hasn’t. Is it the way he’s going to deliver on the question of whether abortion is like the Holocaust? Is he now changed? Is he now pro-choice?” Pritzker asked of the GOP nominee, a staunchly anti-abortion rights candidate.

“Does he think it’s okay, in the wake of a tragedy where people are gunned down in Highland Park, to say it’s time to move on, and not to actually do something about it?” the governor said, pointing to another comment Bailey had to walk back during his ‘22 campaign.

“I don’t think he’s changed the views that he’s had all along,” Pritzker said. “I think he wants to couch it in different language and messaging, and then hope that people will buy into his messaging, but not pay any attention to what his actual positions are on these issues.”