This article will answer every question you have about J. B. Pritzker. Below are some of the frequently asked questions about him.
- What does Pritzker do for a living?
- Who are Pritzker’s parents and siblings?
- What are Pritzker’s interests and hobbies?
- Is Pritzker married or does he have a girlfriend/boyfriend?
- Does Pritzker have any children?
- Where is Pritzker now?
- How tall is Pritzker?
- How much money does Pritzker earn?
- What is Pritzker’s net worth?
N/B: Please read the entire post to have all your questions answered.
Who is J. B. Pritzker?
Jay Robert “J. B.” Pritzker is a well-known American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019. He is a member of the wealthy Pritzker family which owns the worldwide hotel chain Hyatt. Pritzker is based in Chicago and has started several venture capital and investment startups like the Pritzker Group, where he is a managing partner.
He has been a longtime financial supporter and active member of the Democratic Party. And thus he became the Democratic nominee for governor of Illinois in the 2018 gubernatorial election after winning a crowded primary election. In the general election on November 6, 2018, he defeated Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner and took office on January 14, 2019. In 2022, he was reelected.
How Old Is J. B. Pritzker?
He is 57 years old as of November 2022, having been born on January 19, 1965, in Atherton, California, U.S. Pritzker shares his birthdate with celebrities such as; Mac Miller (1992-2018), Dolly Parton, Shawn Johnson, Jodie Sweetin, Brady Farrar, and many more.
J. B. Pritzker Family
Who are J. B. Pritzker Parents?
He was born to Donald Pritzker (Father, born on October 31, 1832, but died on May 6, 1972) was an American entrepreneur and businessman. And Sue Sandel (Mother, died on May 8, 1982).
Does J. B. Pritzker have Siblings?
He has two elder siblings. An elder sister by the name of Penny Pritzker (born on May 2, 1959) an American billionaire businesswoman and civic leader. And an elder brother by the name of Anthony Pritzker (born on January 7, 1961) a member of the Pritzker family and heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune.
J. B. Pritzker Education
He received his high school education at Milton Academy. After high school, he attended Duke University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Later, he attended Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1993.
J. B. Pritzker Marital Status
He is married to the love of his life Mary Kathryn Muenster. They married in 1993.
J. B. Pritzker Kids
He and his wife Mary have two kids by name of Teddi Pritzker and Donny Pritzker.
J. B. Pritzker Business Career
He served as chairman of ChicagoNEXT, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s council on innovation and technology, and he founded 1871, a nonprofit digital start-up incubator. Moreover, he co-founded Chicago Ventures and funded the start-up of Techstars Chicago and Built in Chicago. With his brother Tony, he co-founded Pritzker Group Private, which owns and operates middle-market companies. The group includes a growing family of companies including pallet rental leader PECO and medical device maker Clinical Innovations. The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce gave Pritzker its Entrepreneurial Champion Award in 2008, because of his efforts to promote economic development and job creation.
An Early Political Career
He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois’s 9th congressional district in 1998, spending $500,000 from his personal fortune on TV ads in the Chicago market. In the Democratic primary, he finished third among five candidates with 20.48% of the vote to then State Representative Jan Schakowsky’s 45.14% and State Senator Howard W. Carroll’s 34.40%. He then founded Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, a national organization dedicated to attracting voters under the age of 40 to the Democratic Party. Also, he served on the Washington, D.C. legislative staff of U.S. Senator Terry Sanford, U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon, and U.S. Representative Tom Lantos. In the 2008 presidential election, he served as national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In the 2008 general election, he supported Barack Obama and helped bring the Clinton and Obama campaigns to Illinois.
A Career as Governor of Illinois
A Career in the Elections (2018)
He announced on April 6, 2017, his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Illinois. He was then endorsed by Secretary of State Jesse White, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutiérrez, former Illinois Congressman Glenn Poshard, more than a dozen members of the Illinois General Assembly, 21 local labor unions, and the Illinois AFL–CIO. On August 10, 2017, he announced that his running mate would be freshman State Representative and fellow Chicago resident Julianna Stratton. By December 2017, he had spent $42 million of his own money on his campaign. He went on and won the primary on March 20, 2018, by beating each of his opponents by more than 20%. In the November general election, he defeated incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner with 54% of the vote to Rauner’s 39%.
2022
He is running for reelection with Stratton as his running mate. He then won the June 28 Democratic primary and will face Republican nominee Darren Bailey in the general election.
Tenure
On January 14, 2019, he was inaugurated as the 43rd governor.
2019-20 Fiscal Year
He signed a bipartisan $40 billion balanced budget on June 5, 2019, for the 2019-20 fiscal year. The budget included among many other things, $29 million in additional funding for efforts to encourage participation in the U.S. Census. The budget also neglected any potential revenue that might be collected from the legalization of recreational marijuana. In addition, people who owed taxes between June 30, 2011, and July 1, 2018, were able to take advantage of a “tax amnesty” program that allowed them to pay without penalty.
Abortion
He signed into law Senate Bill 25, or the Reproductive Health Act in June 2019. Moreover, the act repealed the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975, which penalized doctors for performing abortions considered “unnecessary” and the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act”.
Cannabis
The Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act on May 31, 2019. Thus legalizing and regulating the production, consumption, and sale of adult-use cannabis. That same year on June 25, he signed the legislation into law which went into effect on January 1, 2020. Illinois became the 11th U.S. state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. By July 2020, it had generated over $52 million. He then pardoned approximately 11,000 people for low-level marijuana convictions on December 31, 2019.
Child Welfare and Education
The state of Illinois authorized more spending on education, including grade schools, community colleges, and state universities in the balanced budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year, worth $40 billion. The Illinois Department of Children and Family which was facing pressure went on and received $80 million for hiring new staff and improving services. In addition, community colleges statewide received a total of $1,032,800,000 whereas private colleges and universities got $400 million for capital projects. By December 4, 2019, the task force was to report its findings to the General Assembly. Moreover, he has created job training for community colleges funded based on the percentage of low-income students attending. It launched in 2020.
COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he took several measures to mitigate the pandemic in Illinois. He then declared on March 13, 2020, that public and private schools in Illinois would be closed from March 17, through March 31. He then announced on March 15, that all bars and restaurants must close until March 30. And restaurant businesses with delivery and takeout options would still be able to serve. That same year on March 16, he issued an executive order limiting permitted crowd sizes to 50 people. However, despite Chicago elections officials, he refused to postpone the state’s March 17 primary elections, since it was not something that he had the authority to do.
On March 20, 2020, he issued a stay-at-home order to take effect the next day. He then announced on March 25, 2020, the extension of Illinois’s tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15. Also, he announced three new emergency assistance programs that allowed small businesses to access more than $90 million in aid. On December 4, 2020, he announced that Illinois would receive 109,000 initial doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine. On September 19, 2021, he began imposing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students, educators, and most healthcare workers. He then announced on July 14, 2022, the lifting of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students that initially went into effect on September 19, 2021.
Gun Control
He signed a bill on January 17, 2019, requiring the state certification of gun dealers, which passed during the tenure of his predecessor, Bruce Rauner. Moreover, it requires gun dealers to ensure the physical security of their stores, to keep a detailed list of items on sale, and for employees of such stores to undergo annual training. In response to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s comments in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary School shooting, on May 25, 2022, Pritzker said that a “majority of guns used in Chicago shootings come from states with lax gun laws”.
Infrastructure
In late June 2019, he signed the bipartisan capital bill named Rebuild Illinois, worth $45 billion to be spent in six years and estimated to create 540,000 jobs. This became the first capital spending bill in Illinois in 10 years. The plan includes; $32.2 billion for transportation projects including $25 billion for road upgrades, $3.5 billion for public and private schools and universities, $1 billion for environmental protection, $420 million for expanding broadband Internet service to rural Illinois, $465 million for health care and human services facilities and $1.8 billion for libraries, museums, and minority-owned businesses. In June 2019, he deployed 200 Illinois National Guardsmen to combat flooding across central and southern Illinois. That same year in August, he officially requested a federal disaster declaration for 32 Illinois counties due to flooding since February 2019.
Labor
On February 19, 2019, he signed into law a bill that raises the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. Thus making Illinois the fifth state in the nation and the first state in the Midwest to do so. On April 12, 2019, he signed the Collective Bargaining Freedom Act, which protects the rights of employers, employees, and their labor organizations to collectively bargain. This would ensure that Illinois complies with the National Labor Relations Act. The following month on May 7, he signed legislation to help workers exposed to toxic substances.
LGBT Rights
He went on and signed an executive order requiring schools across the state to be “affirming and inclusive” of transgender and non-binary students in June 2019. Also, he asked the State Board of Education to take a lead in LGBT rights by making relevant resources easily accessible.
Voting Rights
He signed legislation in June 2020, to expand voting by making Election Day a state holiday.
Welfare
The 2019-20 budget spent $230 million on a new Quincy Veterans Home, and $21 million on the Chicago Veterans Home. He then signed House Bill 3343 in July 2019. This is to help create a food program for the elderly, the disabled, and the homeless. Such individuals may collect their benefits from a private business that has a contract with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). The IDHS was to initiate this program no later than January 1, 2020.
A Career in Political Positions
Abortion
He is pro-choice and a vocal supporter of reproductive rights. Thus during the 2018 gubernatorial Democratic primaries, Planned Parenthood supported Pritzker along with Kennedy and Bliss. On January 22, 2019, he signed an executive order giving state employees and women covered under Illinois state health insurance expanded reproductive coverage, including abortion.
Environmental Issues
He committed Illinois on January 23, 2019, to the U.S. Climate Alliance, which aimed to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 26% by 2025.
LGBT Rights
In addition, Pritzker has been a longtime advocate of LGBT rights and has actively participated in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade. He then said as part of his 2018 gubernatorial race, his administration would address anti-LGBT hate crimes, expand LGBT access to health care, and oppose any anti-LGBT legislation.
Cannabis
Furthermore, he supports the state’s medical marijuana program and legalizing recreational cannabis in Illinois. In June 2019, he signed the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act into law. This effectively legalized the possession and regulated sale of marijuana for recreational purposes starting in 2020.
Minimum Wage
As a candidate for governor, he campaigned on raising the minimum wage in Illinois to $15 an hour.
Net Neutrality
He supports net neutrality, and wrote on his gubernatorial campaign website: “As governor, I will ensure that all internet traffic is treated equally so that everyone can continue to use the internet to grow their businesses, further their education, and enjoy the freedom of expression”.
Philanthropy
With him as the president of the Pritzker Family Foundation, he funds research and programs focused on children in poverty. Under the leadership of economist James Heckman, he supported the creation of the Pritzker Consortium on Early Childhood Development at the University of Chicago. The Pritzker Family Foundation is also a founding supporter of the First Five Years Fund. This is an organization focusing nationwide attention and resources on comprehensive, quality early care and learning programs for children from birth to age five.
He and his wife 2007 donated $5 million to the University of South Dakota to build the Theodore R. and Karen K. Muenster University Centre in honor of his wife’s parents. Northwest University School of Law announced on October 22, 2015, that Pritzker and his wife M.K. Pritzker had made a $100 million gift to the school of Pritzker’s great-grandfather, Nicholas J. Pritzker. However, the Better Government Association, an Illinois watchdog has criticized Pritzker’s charitable giving practices saying, he funneled the funds he gave to charity from offshore tax havens.
J. B. Pritzker Height and Measurements
Adding up to his well-built body is a height of 5ft 6inches (1.68m) and a weight of 85kg (187lbs).
J. B. Pritzker Salary and Net Worth
He has a salary of $177,412 and a net worth of $3.6 billion.
