Well, it’s only 2025, and Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has already cut the first ad of the 2028 presidential campaign.
One problem: It won’t be his team that ends up running it.
In a viral clip from a Thursday session of the House Oversight Committee, Pritzker clashed with GOP Texas Rep. Brandon Gill over whether or not he’d ever encouraged people to break the law.
The purpose of the hearing was whether or not Democratic governors were ignoring immigration law in the midst of a feud between blue states and President Donald Trump’s administration over enforcing it.
“Despite President Trump’s efforts to secure the border and enforce the law, Democrat-run sanctuary cities and states are siding with illegal aliens. For today’s Democrat Party, it seems unlimited illegal immigration isn’t a failure of policy — it is the policy,” said Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the Oversight Committee.
“It’s hard to figure out whose side these governors are on; they shield criminals while their own citizens pay the price,” he added.
However, the most viral bit came from a confrontation between Pritzker — one of the three governors from the hearing — and Gill when Gill asked Pritzker whether or not he’d ever used the women’s restroom.
“I’m not sure how this has to do with immigration,” he responded.
“It’s just a yes or a no question. … Do you think men should be allowed in women’s restrooms?” Gill said.
Is Pritzker a political and moral fraud?
“I’m not sure why this has come to this issue,” he said.
Uh-oh. He probably should have remembered he said this in 2017, when Trump ended an Obama-era order that let students use whatever bathroom they chose:
As a protest against Trump’s rescinding protections for trans kids, everyone should use the other gender’s bathroom today! #protecttranskids
— JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) February 23, 2017
This includes whether you were able to or not given the laws of your jurisdiction, which kind of makes it relevant.
“Have you ever used the women’s restroom?” Gill then asked, much the amusement of one man behind Pritzker whose countenance was priceless throughout the questioning — at first puzzled, then trying very hard to suppress outright laughter.
“Not that I can recall,” Pritzker said.
“So you wanted everybody else to do it, but you didn’t,” Gill responded.
A pause. Then: “Sir, I’m not quite sure why we’re on the topic of –“
“You’re advocating for men to use women’s restrooms, but you didn’t do it?” Gill asked.
“I do not advocate that, no,” Pritzker responded.
“Well, actually, you did,” Gill said.
“Did you ever consider that women don’t want you in their bathrooms?” Gill said.
“So you’re admitting that this is just a political circus?” Pritzker said in response. “This has nothing to do with immigration and [is really] about you grandstanding.”
Yes, how dare you grandstand, Rep. Gill? Unlike Pritzker when he was encouraging men to use the women’s restroom, totally unlike it.
By the way, this isn’t one of those things that’s going to go under the radar. As you may be aware if you’re following the already-underway 2028 presidential race, Pritzker is a likely challenger — and, as Politico reported earlier this month, he’s hitching his horse to the wokeness train at a time that others aren’t.
“Stop talking about bathrooms and locker rooms and start talking about the classroom,” said [Rahm] Emanuel, the two-term Chicago mayor who said he is open to a 2028 presidential campaign. “If one child is trying to figure out their pronoun, I accept that, but the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is and can’t even define it.”
Each of these candidates are, either deliberately or tacitly, countering a perceived weakness in their own political record or party writ large — Emanuel, for example, has called the Democratic Party “weak and woke”; Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has said the party needs more “alpha energy”; others like Newsom are perhaps acknowledging that they had a more socially liberal bent in the past. …
Not every Democrat is retreating from defending liberal social stances. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called it “a mistake” to abandon transgender people. “We need to tell people your cost of eggs, your health care being denied, your homeowner’s insurance, your lack of getting warning on tornadoes coming has nothing to do with someone’s gender,” he told The Independent last month. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, too,recently said that it’s “vile and inhumane to go after the smallest minority and attack them.” This spring, Pritzker declared March 31 as Illinois’ Transgender Day of Visibility.
Call me crazy, but maybe it’s “vile and inhumane” to go after the largest “minority” — i.e., women, more or less half the electorate — by telling them that not only do they need to accept male predators in their bathroom, but that men should go into the women’s room to strike a blow for “trans rights.”
So, yes — unfortunately for J.B. Pritzker, he’s managed to cut his own ad against his 2028 presidential hopes. Now if only he’d cut his losses and quit politics for good, we’d all be the better for it.
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