page_title: J. B. Pritzker
section_title: 2018 Illinois gubernatorial campaign
hierarchical_section_title: J. B. Pritzker / Political career / 2018 Illinois gubernatorial campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: Logo for JB Pritzker's 2018 gubernatorial campaign
context_page_description: Jay Robert "J. B." Pritzker is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd Governor of Illinois. He is a private business owner based in Chicago and a managing partner and co-founder of the Pritzker Group, and a member of the Pritzker family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain. He has an estimated personal net worth of $3.4 billion.
  Pritzker was the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois in the 2018 gubernatorial election. He defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner in the general election on November 6, 2018, and took office on January 14, 2019. As governor, he holds more private wealth than any other governor in American history and is the second-wealthiest politician, not accounting for inflation, to have ever held office in the United States, after former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
context_section_description: On April 6, 2017, Pritzker announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Illinois. His campaign received the endorsements of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, former Illinois Congressman Glenn Poshard, more than a dozen members of the Illinois General Assembly, twenty-one local labor unions, and the Illinois AFL-CIO.
  On August 10, 2017, Pritzker announced that his running mate would be freshman State Representative and fellow Chicago resident Juliana Stratton. By December 2017, Pritzker had spent US$42 million of his own wealth on his campaign, without significant fundraising from any other source. On March 20, 2018, he won the Democratic gubernatorial primary, handily beating each of his primary opponents by more than 20%. In the November general election, Pritzker defeated incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner. Pritzker received 54% of the vote, while Rauner received 39%. Pritzker was well ahead of Rauner in most polls from the summer of 2018 onward, and won by the largest margin in a gubernatorial race since 1994.
  In total, Pritzker had spent US$171.5 million of his own wealth on his campaign, primarily on digital outreach, television advertising, and staff.
caption: Campaign logo
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