At a Democratic dinner in New Hampshire on Sunday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered one of the most defiant speeches yet from a Democratic governor in the Trump era, calling on Americans to “take to the streets,” jam the phone lines in Congress, and “afford not a moment of peace” to lawmakers complicit in what he described as a MAGA-led dismantling of democracy and civil rights.
“We must castigate them on the soap box and then punish them at the ballot box,” Pritzker said, urging Democrats to abandon “the culture of incrementalism that has led us to swallow the cruelty and the callousness with barely a cowardly croak.”
The governor, now in his second term, outlined his record early in the speech—reminding the crowd that under his leadership, Illinois enshrined reproductive rights, legalized cannabis, protected labor rights, joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, and reversed decades of fiscal mismanagement with nine credit upgrades. But the meat of his message was a warning: The threat of authoritarianism under President Donald Trump is real, and the time for niceties is over.
Pritzker didn’t mince words about those he says are enabling Trump. “They must feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history with our democracy intact—because we have no alternative but to do just that—we will relegate their portraits to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors.”
He also confronted the scapegoating of transgender youth, people of color, and immigrants, saying Democrats lost voters not because they defended vulnerable communities but because too many leaders lacked the guts to do it boldly.
“Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants—instead of their own lack of guts and gumption,” he said to loud applause.
The speech stood in stark contrast to recent comments from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who LGBTQ+ advocates widely condemned in March after telling right-wing activist Charlie Kirk that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender girls and women to play sports with their cisgender peers. Newsom’s comments, aired during the launch of his podcast, sparked backlash from Equality California, HRC, and members of California’s LGBTQ+ caucus, who called his remarks “a betrayal.”
Pritzker, by contrast, doubled down in New Hampshire. Without hedging, he called on Democrats to be proud defenders of trans rights, immigrants, and gay people. He also cited unlawful deportations under the Trump administration, including the wrongful removals of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Andry José Hernández Romero, the latter a gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker sent to a Salvadoran mega-prison under a revived Alien Enemies Act.
“It’s wrong to snatch a person off the street and ship them to a foreign gulag with no chance to defend themselves in a court of law,” he said, reminding the crowd that three U.S. citizen children—one with stage 4 cancer—were among the most recent targets.
Pritzker also called out the targeting of LGBTQ+ people in the military under the Trump administration’s reinstated ban. “Our military service members don’t deserve to be told by a washed-up Fox TV commentator who drank too much and committed sexual assault before being appointed Secretary of Defense that they can’t serve their country simply because they’re Black or gay or a woman,” he said, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Throughout his remarks, Pritzker clarified his deep connection to these issues. As a Ukrainian American Jew whose family fled Russian pogroms, he condemned Trump for “tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors.” And in a clear rebuke of MAGA leaders weaponizing identity, he said, “Do not claim that your authoritarian power grabs are about combating antisemitism. When you destroy social justice, you are disparaging the very foundation of Judaism.”
Pritzker’s Sunday speech built on themes he referenced at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Los Angeles dinner in March, where he delivered a similarly passionate defense of LGBTQ+ people.
“I have to laugh when I hear the right-wing carry on about the dangers of exposing kids to trans people or same-sex couples,” the billionaire told the HRC crowd. “Because I’m living proof that introducing your kids to the gay agenda might result in them growing up to be governor.”
He added, “I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will.”
HRC’s director of communications, Laurel Powell, praised Pritzker’s New Hampshire speech.
“Gov. Pritzker talks the talk and walks the walk when it comes to LGBTQ+ allyship. That’s why we were so excited to welcome him as a speaker at our Los Angeles dinner, where he made an equally fiery defense of our community,” Powell told The Advocate. “We’re lucky to have him and a number of other governors—like [Maine’s] Janet Mills and [Kentucky’s] Andy Beshear—who have been willing to stand up for our community as we face attacks from the MAGA regime.”
At both events, Pritzker invoked the LGBTQ+ community’s legacy of resistance and framed the current political climate as a generational test of moral courage.
“I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist,” he told the LA crowd. “Well, I am. We are. We will.”
For Pritzker, the message is simple: the moment demands urgency and courage, not cautious calculation.
“When the courage of our civic leaders wavers,” he said in New Hampshire. “We should remind them that cowardice always comes at a cost.”