Meet JB

I came to the governorship as an outsider with a track record of creating good-paying jobs and a dedication to making people’s lives better. I was lucky to come from a family that had served in the military and become successful business builders. And despite losing both my parents at a young age, I wanted to follow in their footsteps in service to our nation.

After decades of decline, we’ve begun to turn things around in Illinois. We achieved 12 credit upgrades, eight balanced budgets, better-funded pensions, higher student test scores, and a record number of jobs. Wages are higher, college is more affordable, and our individual rights are better protected. Illinois can once again hold its head up.

I’m proud of the progress we have already made, and there is so much more to do for working families. As we continue to tackle the affordability crisis and position Illinois’ for the future, I’m confident in our ability to meet every challenge and continue to get big things done for people across our state.

Since I first met MK more than 30 years ago, she has been my partner in everything, and I’m so happy that the love of my life is helping to make our state a better place to raise a family. We’re very proud of our two children, and we’re reminded every day that the work we do right now is about making a better life for generations to come.

Before becoming governor, I oversaw business operations with 10,000 employees, and I led the creation of a non-profit business incubator that has helped create over 14,500 jobs and made Chicago one of the top tech hubs in the world.

As governor, I’ve added 15 innovation hubs to help entrepreneurs build new businesses, expanded Small Business Development Centers, grown skills training programs to prepare Illinoisans for the jobs of our modern day economy, made Illinois a home for the industries of the future like clean energy, brought tax relief to small businesses, and implemented the largest infrastructure plan in state history, creating and supporting hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.

When I was just a kid, my mother was an activist for abortion rights and civil rights, so it’s been a lifelong endeavor that led me to fight for those things for my entire career. I worked with survivors to help build the Illinois Holocaust Museum to educate generations to come, fight bigotry, hatred, and intolerance. I enshrined abortion rights into state law to protect women’s right to make their own healthcare decisions. I raised the minimum wage to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. Working with the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, we enacted historic reforms in the fight for justice, education, economic opportunity, and healthcare.

For three decades, I’ve stood as a national leader in supporting early childhood education, and I’ve expanded the school breakfast program for kids throughout Illinois. As governor, I’ve made major investments to expand access to quality preschool to 11,000 more children and in 2026, Illinois ranked 5th in the nation for pre-K-12 education.

From reproductive freedom to voting rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ equality – Illinois is a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire nation. As Donald Trump takes away healthcare to give the wealthy a tax break and makes life harder and more expensive for working families, I have stood up to him for Illinoisans. When he tried to send armed troops to the streets of Chicago, I stopped him because as I said after Donald Trump’s re-election: “You come for my people, you come through me.”