How JB Pritzker’s decision to run for reelection could impact his 2028 aspirations

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Lawrence Hurley previews a major Supreme Court decision day. Plus, Natasha Korecki explores the 2028 implications of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s decision to seek a third term.

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— Adam Wollner

How JB Pritzker’s decision to run for re-election could impact his 2028 aspirations

Analysis by Natasha Korecki

From Chicago’s South Side, JB Pritzker, who has emerged as a prominent national voice of resistance to President Donald Trump, announced today he was running — for a third term as governor of Illinois.

It’s no secret Pritzker has White House ambitions, with his frequent cable news interviews, political investments in national battlegrounds and visits to states likely to be early on a presidential primary calendar.

Appearing on the ballot in November 2026 doesn’t preclude him from running for president. But it does push Pritzker into a potentially precarious position as other Democrats begin dipping their toes into the 2028 waters.

As the sure-to-be-packed field ramps up, Pritzker will be stumping in one of the bluest states in the nation. As he does, he will have to answer if he plans to stick around for all four years of his state job. If he’s re-elected, he’ll have to wait a requisite amount of time before shifting into White House mode. By then, will a newcomer capture the Democratic energy? Will potential opponents get a leg up on out-organizing and defining him?

GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis found himself in this predicament when he first sought re-election in Florida in 2022 before announcing a 2024 bid. By the time DeSantis entered the race, Trump had already established a foothold in the contest.

Of course, Democrats’ dynamic heading into 2028 is markedly different from that of the GOP primary that featured a former president who led one of the biggest movements in modern politics.

But already, former Chicago mayor and ex-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel — who hails from Pritzker’s state — is openly exploring a presidential bid. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has spent months drawing progressive crowds on the road with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, who are bound by term limits and will be out of office come early 2027, will be free to begin building organizations and raising money for potential White House bids.

Pritzker would be far from the first politician who held office while running for president. And as a billionaire who has bankrolled his own campaigns, he is uniquely situated to shift into a national posture.

A veteran Illinois political operative and Pritzker ally said running for a national post while holding state office could be an asset.

“I see it completely opposite. You’re better off running with the platform as Illinois governor,” this person said. “This is his third term, and so he can walk and chew gum. He can do events as Illinois governor. And we know that 50% of JB will make a better governor than anybody else out there. I don’t see it as remotely problematic or complicated at all.”

But as another Democratic strategist put it to us earlier this week: “The minute JB announces he’s running, JB would have taken himself out of the presidential conversation from June 2025 to November 2026. Do you really want to cede the field for a year and five months?”

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a big day at the Supreme Court

By Lawrence Hurley

The Supreme Court is set to conclude its nine-month term tomorrow with a flurry of rulings. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has six cases left to decide of those in which it heard oral arguments in the current term.

The one that has attracted the most attention is President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic birthright citizenship. The case focuses not on the lawfulness of the proposal itself but whether federal judges had the power to block it nationwide while litigation continues.

What the court says about so-called nationwide injunctions could have wide-ranging impacts, with judges frequently ruling against Trump on his broad use of executive power. The court also has the option of sidestepping a decision on that issue and instead taking up the merits of the plan.

Birthright citizenship is conferred under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The long-standing interpretation of the provision as understood by generations of Americans, including legal scholars on the left and right, is that anyone born on U.S. soil is an American citizen with a few minor exceptions, including people who are the children of diplomats.

Along with birthright citizenship, the other five cases the court has to decide concern:

• Whether conservative religious parents can opt their elementary school-age children out of LGBTQ-themed books in class.
• Long-running litigation over whether congressional districts in Louisiana are lawful.
• A law enacted in Texas that imposes age restrictions for using adult websites.
• A challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s preventive care task force.
• A Federal Communications Commission program that subsidizes phone and internet services in underserved areas.

More from SCOTUS: The Supreme Court ruled today for South Carolina in its effort to defund Planned Parenthood, concluding that individual Medicaid patients cannot sue to enforce their right to pick a medical provider.

🎙️Here’s the Scoop

This week, NBC News launched “Here’s the Scoop,” a new evening podcast that brings you a fresh take on the day’s top stories in 15 minutes or less.

In today’s episode, host Morgan Chesky discusses the newest recommendations out of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel with NBC News medical contributor Dr. John Torres.

Listen to the episode here →

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Dylan Ebs.

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