Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is pouring millions into some of the country’s most consequential midterm races that could determine just how much President Donald Trump can accomplish in his final two years in office — efforts that will also help the governor in a potential 2028 presidential bid.

Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt empire, is not only doling out his vast personal wealth to boost candidates in contentious races. He’s also building coalitions with Democrats across the country, including in 2028 early primary states. Beyond his own political future, a Democratic-led House or Senate would be essential for any Democratic presidential candidate to get things done in the next term.

Since 2025, Pritzker has given at least $40 million to Democrats and allied causes — including campaigns for Congress, Senate, attorney general, secretary of state, county judges, and state parties in more than a dozen states, as well as ballot fights over abortion rights and redistricting. That figure includes $15 million he contributed to his own PAC called Ready for the Fight, which is running ads in Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Ohio.

“He’s doing everything right. I have never met him, but he is on my list of presidential candidates. So far, in the running is [Kentucky Gov. Andy] Beshear, Pritzker, and [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] AOC in that order,” said Howard Dean, former Vermont governor, presidential candidate and chair of the DNC. “I’m impressed. More more importantly than all the giving is how he’s conducted his governorship. Despite my liking AOC, I’m determined, with that exception, to elect somebody who’s been a governor who’s not from Washington, and he fits the bill.”

Dean called Pritzker’s widespread Democratic contributions “investments,” saying “they’re not just out of the goodness of his heart.”

“It’s a terrific strategy,” Dean said.

Contributions spread across the country

Pritzker kicked off his midterm campaigning for other candidates in August, attending a get-out-the-vote canvass in Orlando with Rep. Maxwell Frost and Florida gubernatorial candidate David Jolly. He has also headlined state party dinners in Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona and Texas. And since last year, he’s attended fundraisers and events in South Carolina, Washington, D.C., New York, Florida, New Hampshire, Louisiana, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Nevada, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maine, Alabama, California and New Mexico.

During a NAACP conference in South Carolina last month, Pritzker described November as “an election that will define America’s next chapter.

“I’m here right now because everything we care about is under siege, and I want to be where the freedom fighters are right here,” Pritzker said. “And I’m here because we’re in a generational battle to preserve voting rights, and that battle is on behalf of all of the people in the Palmetto State, in the land of Lincoln, my home state, and everywhere that the embers of democracy still burn bright.”

Pritzker’s largest contributions this cycle include $1.5 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, $1.2 million to Gina Hinojosa’s campaign for Texas governor, $1 million each to the Democratic Governors Association, Senate Majority PAC, Ohio Democratic Party, the House Majority PAC and Project Battleground, a leadership committee helping Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Georgia gubernatorial campaign. He also gave $310,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

State party contributions include $500,000 each to the Iowa and Michigan Democratic parties, $270,000 to the Democratic Party of New Hampshire, $150,000 to the North Carolina Democratic Party, $125,000 to the Democratic Party of Georgia, $100,000 each to the Maine, South Carolina and Texas Democratic parties. South Carolina are New Hampshire are early primary states in 2028.

Senate candidate contributions include $54,300 to Roy Cooper’s Senate campaign in North Carolina, $50,000 to support Minnesota Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan, $7,000 each for his running mate Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s Senate campaign, Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign in Alaska, Cooper in North Carolina and Senate candidate Sherrod Brown in Ohio. He also gave $3,500 each to Kentucky Senate candidate Charles Booker, Mississippi Senate candidate Scott Colom, New Hampshire Senate candidate Chris Pappas and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico.

The governor also hosted Chicago fundraisers Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Talarico this year.

First Lady MK Pritzker this week said she was “fired up about MAGA men,” and donated $500,000 to Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor in Ohio. The first lady, who is also a prolific donor, also wanted a rare public statement out because she was upset about an ad Acton’s opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, ran featuring Acton’s mother, who has been estranged from Acton since her husband was indicted on a charge of raping Acton as a child.

The first lady said the race was about “standing up to bullies, confronting extremism, and making damn sure that men who thrive on cruelty and division don’t get a free pass to govern.”

Pritzker isn’t the only Illinois Democrat wading into battleground states. Stratton, who is vying for Sen. Dick Durbin’s Senate seat, has also spent time during her general election campaign boosting other Democrats, including Talarico, Cooper, Brown, Ossoff, Colom, Troy Jackson’s Michigan Senate bid, Peltola’s campaign and Lance Bottoms’ Georgia gubernatorial campaign.

The governor’s detractors are also taking notice of his focus on races outside of Illinois.

“Billionaire Governor JB Pritzker has unlimited time and money to spend on his political ambitions, while leaving Illinois in the dust,” Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said. “We need a governor committed to Illinois families, instead of mismanaging state agencies, bloating budgets and leaving the bill for future generations to pay.”

The campaign for Pritzker’s Republican opponent in the Nov. 3 race for Illinois governor, Darren Bailey, said Pritzker “is trying to do what he did in Illinois — buy political power. These donations are nothing but a blatant effort to build support for his delusional 2028 presidential run. Illinois needs a governor, not a candidate for president.”

‘He doesn’t just willy-nilly’

There is a strategy attached to Pritzker’s political giving. Beyond frequent phone calls and requests from people like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, there’s a goal of helping candidates who are perhaps being overlooked in the waning days of the election cycle — with donors moving on to more high profile or popular races. Pritzker also hopes that donations from him might signal to the donor world that they should also help the same Democrats.

The Lance Bottoms contribution came because there was a belief that coordinated campaign money was drying up — and focused on Ossoff. Pritzker wants his contributions to actually move the needle forward. He’s known to contribute to federal candidates whom he knows personally, like Hinojosa, but also those that are known to his staffers, including former Pritzker deputy campaign manager and political adviser Quentin Fulks, who ran Sen. Raphael Warnock’s reelection campaign in Georgia in 2022 and helped lead the Illinois Future PAC supporting Stratton’s Senate campaign. The governor also has a strong relationship with Texas Democrats, whom he helped during their redistricting battle last year.

Beyond Democratic leaders making fundraising requests, the requests for contributions from campaigns are constant.

“For him, he doesn’t just willy-nilly. He does think through, ‘What is this money going to be used for? Will there be a strategic advantage?’” a source with direct knowledge of Pritzker’s spending said. “‘What do you need it for?’”