Gov. Pritzker in Nevada, Virginia, pushing for reproductive rights, fundraising for state parties

WASHINGTON — Gov. J.B. Pritzker was here for the National Governors Association annual winter meeting, and I interviewed him as he was poised to kick off appearances for his Think Big America operation, traveling to Nevada and Virginia for reproductive rights events and to fundraise for the Democratic parties in those states.

In a conference room at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, where the NGA was meeting, we talked about government, politics and the fallout from the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos were children, which closed down in vitro fertilization clinics in that state and raised the fear of red states going after more IVF bans.

And to jump ahead, if you want to know if I think Pritzker, in his second term as Illinois governor, will one day run for president, I do. It’s nothing he said. I’m just reading the tea leaves.

The practical impact of being a billionaire is that the things Pritzker is doing now that could be construed as useful to a presidential bid — using his fortune to make massive contributions to candidates and causes he believes in, especially in the area of reproductive rights — are things he was doing before he was governor and would be doing anyway, no matter if he ever runs for the White House. That’s how he explained it to me.

Pritzker flew to Las Vegas from Washington, where last Saturday he spoke at a kick-off rally for Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom. This Saturday he will be in Arlington, Virginia, a Washington suburb, firing up the troops when he headlines a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Virginia in advance of what is called Super Tuesday, March 5, when 16 states, including Virginia, hold their primary elections.

Last October, Pritzker launched Think Big America, an operation that for now he said he solely funds. The mission of the group is to bankroll candidates and ballot measures in states to support reproductive rights, a cause whose purpose is now amplified with the IVF bans brewing.

On Think Big America’s agenda, Pritzker told me the IVF threat “amplifies, perhaps the underlying reason for the existence of Think Big America.” While some people may not have been animated by the loss of abortion rights, when it comes to the widely used IVF treatments, “this is now reaching into people who never thought that abortion mattered to them.”

Think Big America is the latest addition to Pritzker’s various inter-related activities, which I likened to lanes on the Edens Expressway, all going in the same direction.

“I am in a unique position in American politics, to have some influence, and I am utilizing the influence that I have around different roads, to use your analogy, going down different roads in order to have an impact across the country,” Pritzker said.

The are four main Pritzker lanes: 1) Pritzker’s official role as governor, where under his watch Illinois has become a haven for abortion rights; 2) Pritzker’s political operation and the JB for Governor campaign fund; 3) Pritzker’s personal political contributions and his ability to raise money from others; 4) Think Big America, which shares office space and staff with his political shop.

Pritzker is also a top surrogate for the Biden campaign. In a below-the-radar trip to Washington last month, Pritzker and other governors met with Vice President Kamala Harris at her residence to talk about the campaign. “I think she wanted to hear our views about how it is going, the election that is, and what more the campaign can do and what was happening in our individual states.”

I asked Pritzker for his takeaways from that meeting, and he said, “I think there was no doubt that at least in the room, there was a common understanding that immigration and reproductive rights are the two most important issues that will help demotivate or motivate people to vote and that the president needs to address both of those himself directly, with help from all of us.”

On the Think Big America front, last November, Ohio voted to lock reproductive freedom in the state Constitution by passing The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment. Pritzker helped that drive with a Think Big America donation of $250,000 to Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights and a $750,000 personal contribution to the campaign to get it passed.

Pritzker will be welcomed in Virginia on Saturday after helping turn the commonwealth Legislature Democratic, with Think Big last year donating a total of $250,000 to four state Senate campaigns and the state party, which gave the state an abortion rights majority.

Pritzker landed In Nevada after his Think Big America gave $1 million — about half of its war chest — for the Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom’s 2024 ballot initiative to include abortion rights in the state’s Constitution. Think Big America also is providing staff advising the effort.

In Arizona, Think Big America’s Arizona entity gave $250,000 for Arizonans for Abortion Access. Think Big is also looking at potential plays to codify abortion rights in Florida and Montana.