Gov. JB Pritzker

Two things really upset me.

A lot of things, actually.

But I remember particular moments for this.

In January, you may recall, I think it was in January of 2024, Joe Biden did a speech at Valley Forge about democracy.

And I remember I got invited as a Democrat, as a governor, to go to Valley Forge for him to give that speech because he was trying to make it the theme of his campaign.

Now, you know that I believe in fighting for democracy, but that is not what wins you an election.

You need democracy so we can have the election.

You know, what wins the election, though, is fighting for people to be able to pay their bills, for God's sakes, to make enough money so that, you know, they can afford their electricity, they can afford their housing.

And we Democrats don't talk enough about why it is that we became Democrats in the first place, what the Democratic Party is.

We're the party, I hate to say, maybe you want to pick somebody else, but I would say we're the party of Franklin Roosevelt.

That this is fundamentally, even though I was born in 1965, fundamentally, we are the party of Franklin Roosevelt, adding with that very strong focus on civil rights and human rights.

And we didn't live up to that.

So the second thing, so fighting for democracy was kind of a moment when I was like, okay, I'm for fighting for democracy, but that's not the theme.

Also, to your point, in 2024,

Where was everybody talking about, we have a $7.25 minimum wage in this country.

I mean, Jesus, you can't survive on two jobs at $7.25.

If you're holding down two jobs, you can't survive on that.

That's $28,000 a year.

You can't feed your family on that, let alone one job.

Why are we as a party not out there fighting for, you know, the things that we really believe in that, you know?