CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker took aim at a familiar political target Wednesday as he kicked off a statewide campaign bus tour, blaming Republican President Donald Trump for many of Illinois’ struggles during the Democratic governor’s nearly eight years in office, while focusing less attention on his actual GOP opponent in the November election. His bid for a rare third term as governor is “about ...

JB Pritzker and running mate Christian Mitchell greet people on the lakefront while kicking off a bus tour during his reelection campaign on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, near Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker took aim at a familiar political target Wednesday as he kicked off a statewide campaign bus tour, blaming Republican President Donald Trump for many of Illinois’ struggles during the Democratic governor’s nearly eight years in office, while focusing less attention on his actual GOP opponent in the November election.

His bid for a rare third term as governor is “about working people, about affordability, about making sure that people have what they need to get ahead, and also that we’re protecting them from the damage that Donald Trump and his administration is doing in Washington, D.C.,” Pritzker said outside the Adler Planetarium, flanked by Christian Mitchell, his running mate for lieutenant governor.

Pritzker has intensified his criticism of Trump, his most ardent political foe, with some 70 days until the Nov. 3 election to hammer home for voters in deep blue Illinois that the race for governor is just as consequential as a presidential election, arguing that Trump’s policies have had an adverse effect on the state.

Pritzker has also sought to use second-time opponent Darren Bailey’s association with Trump to his advantage. The conservative former lawmaker from southeastern Illinois has, in the past, enthusiastically supported the president, who endorsed Bailey in his first run for governor in 2022 — a race Bailey lost to Pritzker by nearly 13 percentage points.

Trump has lost Illinois by more than 10 percentage points in each of the last three presidential elections and has this year seen low approval ratings, with the war in Iran taking a toll on the U.S. economy.

“We’ve done a great job of fending off the very difficult circumstances that Donald Trump and his administration have put on the state of Illinois, continuing to balance budgets, for example, while also providing people with backup support for, well, healthcare and for food assistance that’s been taken away by the federal government,” said Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, who is considered a possible 2028 presidential contender. “So, in this campaign … we’re talking a lot about both protecting the state from that onslaught, but also about advancing the cause of getting jobs.”

Pritzker didn’t mention Bailey in his brief opening remarks outside the planetarium, only invoking his opponent by name in response to questions from reporters.

“Donald Trump is very unpopular because he’s put an enormous burden on the people of this country and the people of Illinois, and I think that the fact that he’s still got a little bit of power within the Republican Party is maybe evidence that Darren Bailey won his primary with Donald Trump’s support,” Pritzker told reporters.

Bailey and his running mate, Aaron Del Mar of Palatine, meanwhile, appeared outside a Tyson Foods plant in northwest Illinois on Wednesday after the company earlier this month announced it was laying off about 2,500 workers at its beef facility in Rock Island County. Bailey wasted no time attacking Pritzker and his policies, saying “his administration has failed” on replacing lost jobs.

“JB Pritzker immediately pointed towards Washington and national economic conditions. The cattle shortage is real, but so is Illinois’ economic record,” Bailey said. “After nearly eight years in office, Pritzker cannot take credit every time a business opens and blame Washington every time one closes.”

Asked about Bailey’s criticism over the Tyson plant closure, Pritzker called the layoffs there a “terrible situation.” The governor said he’s spoken with a top company official who told him Tyson is willing to sell the facility to another firm. But Pritzker pivoted to criticizing Trump and pointed to national trends, noting rising beef prices and Tyson’s closure of at least one other facility, in Utah.

Despite his focus on Trump and the impact of the president’s policies on Illinois, Pritzker took shots at Bailey while speaking to reporters, calling him a “Donald Trump sycophant” who is “going to lose in November.” Pritzker also reiterated his criticism of the former state senator from Xenia from last week when Bailey defended curricula used at the Full Armor Christian Academy, which Bailey founded, that teaches children the scientifically disproven idea that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time.

Earlier this week, the Bailey campaign slammed Pritzker for his rhetoric about Full Armor Christian Academy, alleging that a threatening message was sent to the private school. Bailey said authorities are investigating and he called it “reckless” for Pritzker and his campaign to lob criticism at a school filled with children.

After Pritzker’s bus tour kicked off outside the Adler Planetarium, his campaign stopped about 2 miles west of the Loop for a rally with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 14. It was an opportunity for the governor to pay tribute to union members who are key Democratic allies, and it happened the same day Pritzker received an endorsement from the influential International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, which represents more than 24,000 construction workers and other tradespeople.

At the painters union hall, Pritzker talked about what he views as threats from the Trump administration to union workers, and Mitchell — a former state lawmaker from Chicago who served as one of Pritzker’s top aides during the governor’s first term — told a cramped room of union members and campaign supporters that unlike leaders “that fight for you,” Bailey wants to do the opposite.

“Our opponent, dangerous Darren Bailey, Donald Trump’s favorite lap dog, wants to take us right back to those bad old days under (former Republican Gov.) Bruce Rauner,” Mitchell said in his opening remarks, alluding to the anti-union agenda of Pritzker’s predecessor. “He’s using the same old demagoguery we often hear from the Republican Party, still beholden to corporate special interests and crony capitalists, like his boss, President Trump.”

Later in the day, Pritzker signed measures into law that would establish a regulatory framework for high-speed e-bikes, e-scooters and electric unicycles. The law goes into effect next year.

His office also announced that the state had received its 11th credit upgrade from one of the major Wall Street ratings agencies since 2021.

____