Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois is expected this week to announce a bid for re-election in 2026, according to two people close to his campaign. The announcement, expected to come on Thursday, opens the chance that Mr. Pritzker will have a third term in the governor’s office while not ruling out the possibility of a presidential run in 2028.
The two people who described the plans asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly.
Mr. Pritzker, 60, a Democrat and billionaire hotel heir, has emerged as one of the most vocal national figures on the left since President Trump returned to office, sparring with Mr. Trump on policy and urging fellow Democrats to fight back against his agenda.
“It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he told a group of Democrats in the early presidential primary state of New Hampshire this spring. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
In Illinois, the sixth most-populous state in the country, Mr. Pritzker has pushed policies to the left, expanding abortion rights, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour and signing into law the legalization of recreational marijuana. He has been a vocal supporter of sanctuary policies for immigrants, including a state law that was signed by his predecessor, Bruce Rauner, a Republican.
Mr. Pritzker signed legislation aimed at strengthening rights for residents who are undocumented or immigrants, part of a promise to make Illinois a “firewall” against Mr. Trump’s deportation efforts. Earlier this month, Mr. Pritzker testified on immigration policy in Washington before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, saying that Illinois would “not participate in abuses of power” at the behest of federal immigration officials.
In 2023, Mr. Pritzker founded Think Big America, a nonprofit that supports abortion rights.
He has recruited companies to the state and helped build investments in quantum computing, but has had mixed success with some corporate interests, who have chafed at the state’s high taxes, fiscal instability and deep pension problems. Mr. Pritzker has also struggled to win over rural downstate residents, many of whom see him as a wealthy, liberal Chicagoan who is out of step with their concerns.
Mr. Pritzker will not have to depend on donors to power a third campaign. He is able to largely self-fund his runs for office with his family fortune. He spent $350 million on his first two campaigns, the Chicago Tribune reported. He easily won a second term in 2022 with 55 percent of the vote.
Illinois governors rarely serve more than one or two terms: The last governor to be elected to a third term was James R. Thompson, a Republican who held the job from 1977 to 1991.