Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is running for a third term in office, seeking to be the first governor to serve at least three terms since Republican Jim Thompson.

Pritzker has picked Christian Mitchell to serve as his running mate in the November election. Mitchell previously served as deputy governor, vice president of civic engagement at the University of Chicago and as a former state lawmaker.

The two will face Republican Darren Bailey, who ran for governor in 2022, and his running mate, Cook County GOP Chairman Aaron Del Mar.

 Illinois Public Media’s The 21st Show is interviewing candidates ahead of the November general election. 

IPM’s Brian Mackey recently sat down with Mitchell to discuss why he wants to be lieutenant governor and what his policy priorities would be.

 

Interview Highlights

On his relationship with Pritzker:

“We have a level of trust and respect for each other that means that I’ll be, I think, very highly involved in a lot of big initiatives, making sure that we continue to advance the cause of the people of Illinois … I’m also excited about being part of making sure that the governor’s agenda about lowering the cost of housing, lowering the cost of energy, raising wages and the cost — the standard of living, I should say, for the people of Illinois, I think I’ll be heavily involved in that, and that really excites me.”

On what he hopes to accomplish as lieutenant governor:

“What is the future of the state of Illinois? What’s the 2050 plan? What are the things we need to do right now, to invest in our community colleges, our colleges, our technical education, our K-12 education, to make sure that Illinoisans are ready for the jobs of now and the jobs of the future? … I think this office gives me a chance to do the thing I love the most. Go around the state of Illinois, talk to people where they are, hear about the things that they want to see done to make their lives a little bit easier, and then work with them to get those things done.”

On what the state’s policy towards data centers should be:

“You’ve got, you know, multi-billion dollar tech corporations that are looking to build these data centers for the effectuation of their business. Since they’ve got that kind of capital, they need to put some of that capital up in order to make sure that the people of Illinois and the people of the Midwest and the nation are not overly burdened by new price increases driven by the fact that some of these data centers themselves demand as much energy as entire small towns. And so I think that asking the folks who are going to benefit the most to help solve the problem is the right way to go, so that we. Continue to move our economy forward, but not do so in a way that means that the small business owner or the everyday household is paying more for their energy.”

On maintaining infrastructure in downstate Illinois:

“We will continue to put more money into downstate roads and bridges. There actually was significant money in that new RTA bill for downstate transit rebuilding and investing in those systems. But most importantly, we will always make sure that we have the resources we need to fund the rebuild of those roads, because it’s how we get goods to-and-from market. It’s how we continue to grow our economy.”