Gov. Pritzker and Christian Mitchell Rally 500+ Supporters in Metro East
**Remarks as Prepared for Delivery**
BELLEVILLE, IL — During the JB for Governor “Fighting for You” tour, Governor JB Pritzker and lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Christian Mitchell hosted a rally in Metro East at Belle-Clair Fair Grounds Park. Gov. Pritzker’s remarks were as follows:
AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER’S METRO EAST RALLY REMARKS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2026
Hello fellow Democrats! Let’s give it up again for a hero for the children of the Metro East and our wonderful Olympic champion, Jackie Joyner-Kersee!
Thank you to my good friend Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski and the rest of the dream team including our next comptroller, Margaret Croke, our next lieutenant governor, Christian Mitchell, and our next United States senator, Juliana Stratton!
To Mark Kern, Chris Belt, Jay Hoffman, Katie Stuart, and George McClellan, you are the foundation from which we will build Democratic victories here in the Metro East in 2026.
I love it here in St. Clair County, the first county to endorse me for governor in 2017. I will never forget that you were there for me — I will always deliver for you.
In my 61 years, I’ve worked in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, built and grown businesses, created a charitable foundation for early childhood development, chaired a human rights agency, started a small business tech incubator, and built a museum. But there’s no job I’ve been more honored to hold than that of governor.
In eight years as the leader of this state, through the good times and the bad, there hasn’t been a day when I woke up and wished I was doing something different.
Along the way of running a state, I seem to have picked up a few new habits.
For example, I now regularly make the mistake of reading the comments of online trolls, although I care about them a lot less than I used to. I once had my speech get a little wet and got stymied because I couldn’t get the pages unstuck, so I’ve taken to crinkling up each page so they won’t lay flat on each other. When I get nervous in the middle of a speech, I pick the kindest face in the room and deliver it only to that person the entire time. And when I’m having a political argument with someone, and I’m not winning, I’ve figured out that if I offer them a shot of Malört, it can make all the difference.
But the best habit I’ve picked up over the last few years is that I take a long walk every single day. When I’m in Springfield, I walk around Washington Park. When I’m in Chicago, it’s somewhere on the lakefront or the Bloomingdale Trail. In Du Quoin, it’s around the state fairgrounds there.
I walk when it’s warm, and I walk when it’s cold. I’m an early riser, so I’m out there every day when the sun starts peeking over the horizon, and Illinois is just waking up.
Walking forces me to literally touch grass. What’s great is that, on my walks, when people see me, they just say, “Hey JB.” Not, “Hello Governor.” These are most often total strangers. Sometimes it’s a running club asking to take a selfie with me. Sometimes it’s a new parent pushing a stroller, aching for some adult conversation with nearly anyone, even the governor. Sometimes it’s someone with a complaint, other times it’s someone with a compliment. But inevitably what happens is that I’ll hear someone say my name, and I’ll look and see a fellow Illinoisan, who’s just starting their day too, and they’ll briefly chat with me like a neighbor, because… that’s what I am.
When I started taking these daily walks, it was originally for my physical health, and it seemed like it would be drudgery. But in short order, I’ve found that my walks are the best thing I’ve ever done for my mental health — to center me for the work ahead.
That’s important because somehow over this last decade of American politics, we seem to have lost the cord that once kept society together — the expectation that even if we disagree, we owe each other kindness and compassion. Computer screens have become a weapon of cruelty, and the only cure is finding time to talk to people in person, face to face.
Chatting with people on my walks is a reminder that politics isn’t what drives most people, that the sun rises every morning, and with it, rise people who don’t care what party you come from or what country you come from or what religion you believe in. They just want someone to help make their life a little bit easier.
And when I meet those people, when I shake their hands and listen to their stories and look into their eyes when they laugh or cry or yell, it makes me want to make their lives a whole lot easier.
That desire has helped me develop another important habit. I don’t sugarcoat the truth. During the darkest days of the Covid pandemic, I learned that the best thing I could do during my daily press conferences was just tell people what was happening, good and bad. I’ve found that no matter how difficult the truth is to hear, it’s so much better than being lied to.
And right now, in this country, we are being lied to every single day. So, here’s the truth, plain and simple. Our state is under siege. Not by immigrants. Not by protesters. Not by the deep state. Not by the press. Not by Canada or Mexico or Greenland. Not by antifa or Jewish space lasers or Pride parades.
No. Our state is under siege by a petty, corrupt man in Washington, who ran for president because he wanted to live in a palace and get rich. Our state is under siege by the skilled sycophants who surround the president and use his base desires as cover for their own destructive agendas. Our state is under siege by the many, many Republicans who are either too infatuated or too frightened to fight Donald Trump for the people they serve.
Republicans like Darren Bailey.
You can be a lot of things and be an effective governor, but one thing you cannot be is a coward. And right now, Darren Bailey and the Republican Party is deathly afraid of reality.
Gas prices are high because President Trump took us to war in Iran and Venezuela.
Meat and fruit and beer cost more today than they ever have because President Trump insisted on imposing tariffs.
Farms are going under, and businesses tied to those farms are laying off workers, because President Trump started a trade war that had no greater purpose than a few cable news hits.
The state of Illinois is facing its most difficult budget decisions in a decade because President Trump has cut SNAP benefits and money to local hospitals and FEMA reimbursements for storm damage.
Darren Bailey would have you believe that you can be governor of our great state without confronting any of the damage Donald Trump has done to our economy and our democracy. He’s running a campaign that treats Trump like Voldemort — someone whose name he will not speak.
But let me tell you another truth: the president is trying to break this country. Through Republican and Democratic administrations, through war and famine and flood and plague, we have existed with a common moral framework that says that we try in the best and most equitable way we can, to lift each other up. He’s trying to destroy that.
An ideology that rejects that compact is poisonous and dangerous and comes with terrifying real-world consequences.
I have to worry about whether people can eat the lettuce or blueberries off a grocery shelf because Trump is doing away with food inspections. I have to track measles outbreaks because the president put a madman in charge of vaccine recommendations. I have to monitor the movements of ICE agents because he handed guns to people who couldn’t pass a background check to work in an animal shelter. I have to find money we don’t have to fight problems that didn’t exist before Donald Trump.
It is the reality of being a governor in America right now.
The question you need to ask yourself is: Do you want someone in this job who has the courage to confront reality, or do you want someone in this job who thinks dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth together?
Being governor is about confronting the truth — and then getting to work.
Families deserve better paying jobs and higher wages. Healthcare for all. The best public education in the nation. And they deserve a governor who, no matter the reality they must work with, is going to find a way to make things better.
When I first ran for governor, Illinois was a national punchline. Our credit rating was heading toward bankruptcy. We had billions in unpaid bills. Our human services were hollowed out. Our roads and bridges and airports were crumbling. And Springfield was paralyzed by a man who hated unions and wanted to destroy government.
So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.
We’ve balanced the budget every year and gotten 11 credit upgrades, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions in interest payments.
We’ve put more money in the pockets of working families by raising the minimum wage to a living wage, guaranteeing universal paid leave for our workers, and lowering taxes on families with kids.
We have smaller class sizes and hired more teachers, and Illinois schools are now ranked 5th best in the nation.
We became a fortress for freedom — protecting reproductive rights, workers’ rights, and your right to vote.
I’ve invested in police, mental healthcare, and substance use treatment, which has led to lower crime rates and better public safety.
And I’ve attracted new companies and jobs to Illinois, making us number two in the nation for corporate expansions.
We have more work to do. And Christian Mitchell and I have a bold vision to confront a world where change is accelerating. We need elected officials who can stand up to the enriched and entrenched — to the wealthy and well-connected.
We need to be willing to reimagine the old social contract because — it’s broken. We cannot tell our children anymore that as long as you go to school, work hard, learn a skill, and find a job, then you will be able to pay off debt, afford a house, buy a car, and go on vacation every once in a while.
Hoping that corporate tycoons and tech billionaires will find their better angels and help mend the society they broke is not a strategy — it’s an empty slogan.
We must recenter the conversation on the everyday Americans who get up every morning and try their best to make do with what they have — who are holding it together with duct tape and string. And who are asking their leaders to honestly confront one fundamental question: Is life really just about getting up, going to work and grinding it out until you die? Or do we owe each other something better — something more?
I believe, as a governor, I owe you something more. And I am willing to fight like hell to get it. I’m willing to wield the truth like a weapon. I’m willing to confront the people in my own party who are too feckless to fight, and I’m willing to confront the people in the Republican Party who are too cruel to lead.
I’m going to keep getting up every morning and taking my walks. I’m going to keep loving this job and the people of this great state. And I am going to keep fighting — for kindness and compassion and courage and truth. For you and your family and your friends and your future.
So I have just one question for you, Illinois — I have asked you before, and I will ask you again — are you ready for the fight?
No really — are you ready for the fight?
Then let’s go out and fight together for another four years!
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CONTACT: press@jbpritzkercampaign.com