With Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker widely seen as a presidential contender in 2028, his running mate in this year’s gubernatorial contest, Christian Mitchell, could be needed to take over as governor if Pritzker leaves office.

“If anything happens, yes, I’ll be ready,” Mitchell said on the latest episode of the "Politically Speaking" podcast. “But for the most part, what I’m really focused on is how I can be the best lieutenant governor I can be — help move the state forward, help our farmers, help our small businesses.”

Mitchell said many of the same goals that first prompted him to run for the Illinois House of Representatives motivate him to run for lieutenant governor: lowering the cost of health care and raising wages.

Seeing his late grandfather struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and his mother with breast cancer put Mitchell on a path to public service, he said.

“When you get a chance to step up and be involved in trying to make the state that has given you everything that you didn’t get from your God and your family, as Illinois has been for me, you take that shot,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell cut his teeth in elected politics representing a Chicago-area seat in the Illinois House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019 before being tabbed by Pritzker as one of four deputy governors. He served in that position from 2019 to 2023, overseeing the state’s infrastructure, energy and public safety.

Mitchell was heavily involved in major legislative victories during Pritzker’s first term, like Rebuild Illinois, which allocated $45 billion toward infrastructure spending, and Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which is responsible for working to transition Illinois from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

From 2023 to 2025, Mitchell served as the vice president of civic engagement at his alma mater, the University of Chicago.

If Pritzker and Mitchell win in November, Mitchell said their administration will be focused on economic development across the state and helping communities build affordable housing. A bill that would create a statewide zoning law to spur housing construction is currently being debated at the Illinois General Assembly, whose session is scheduled to end this weekend.

President Donald Trump, who Mitchell believes threatens many of Pritzker and the Democratically controlled Illinois General Assembly’s achievements, was also a motivating factor for Mitchell to get back into politics, he said.

“You don’t sit on the sidelines when something like that is happening — when the Voting Rights Act is under attack, when there are nine rural hospitals in the state of Illinois that could close because of the Medicaid cuts that Trump has proposed in HR 1 (known as the One Big Beautiful bill) and on which Darren Bailey was silent,” Mitchell said.

Pritzker and Mitchell are squaring off this fall against Republican gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey and lieutenant governor nominee Aaron Del Marr. If Pritzker and Mitchell are successful, that would earn Pritzker a rare third term as Illinois’ chief executive.

Other key issues

Mitchell believes there could be room for improvement on the legislation that ended Illinois’ cash bail system. Many Republicans have critiqued the law, known as the SAFE-T Act, after instances of people with criminal records committing other crimes as they awaited trial.

“I think there are smart and credible folks on both sides of the aisle who are looking at things that could tighten the rules a bit,” Mitchell said. “But what we’re not going to do is go back to a system where wealth determines whether you stay in prison and not how dangerous you might be to the community.”

While data centers can equate to necessary economic development, developers should be more responsible for guaranteeing energy prices for residents don’t increase and other negative consequences, Mitchell said. One of the main legislative proposals to regulate data center concerns remains stalled in the statehouse.

Asked if a Pritzker-Mitchell administration would further gerrymander Illinois congressional districts next year to counteract Republican states drawing their maps in the middle of their decade or after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down majority-minority districts last month, Mitchell admits Illinois will be limited with its 14-3 map.

“There probably isn’t a lot of room here to do much more — just to be really direct about it,” Mitchell said. “So, I think that what the governor and myself and others are going to focus on is how do we support efforts in other states to combat this sort of voter suppression.”

Illinoisans can first cast ballots during the early voting window that begins Sept. 24. Election Day is Nov. 3.