JB Pritzker criticized Chuck Schumer and declined to say whether he should continue leading Senate Democrats amid an escalating internal crisis over the party’s strategy in the second Trump presidency.
Schumer joined Republicans in voting to avert a government shutdown last week, infuriating broad swaths of the left — and leading to calls for him to step down as Senate Democratic leader — for declining to use leverage in the spending fight to oppose Donald Trump’s agenda.
Pritzker, a high-profile governor and Democratic operator, chose not to publicly extend a life raft to Schumer when asked about the senator’s future.
“Look, he’s the elected leader,” Pritzker told reporters after a sit-down at the Center for American Progress in Washington. “I disagree with what he did and vehemently so. But I also know that he has done good work as a Senate leader in other ways.”
During the event, Pritzker praised Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth for voting no on the measure and didn’t mention the state’s other senator, Dick Durbin, who voted with Schumer to advance the spending bill.
Still, he added, “having an internecine war in the Democratic Party does not help anyone,” indicating he hoped Schumer would “stand up for the values” they share.
Pritzker’s slight is particularly notable as the New York senator faces intense intra-party criticism from Democratic-aligned groups in the wake of the spending fight.
This isn’t the first time Pritzker has questioned Schumer’s strategy. Pritzker and other Democratic governors had pushed Schumer earlier this year to unite Senate Democrats in opposition to Donald Trump. Schumer’s decision to join Republicans in advancing a funding bill — despite nearly all House Democrats, and most Senate Democrats, opposing it — threatens to tear open a rift between Democratic leaders over the party’s strategy in the second Trump presidency.
Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden repeatedly called Pritzker a “fighter” in her introduction to the event, the first in a high-profile series of interviews with Democratic figures that the think tank tends to hold between campaign cycles and is an early indicator of movers and shakers in the party.
“Gov. Pritzker does not cower to bullies,” said Tanden, a veteran Democratic political consultant who recently returned to the Center for American Progress after a stint in former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Illinois governor’s interview in Washington comes as other presidential hopefuls are positioning themselves for a newly leaderless Democratic Party. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is making overtures to the MAGA base with a new podcast series and former Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz is touring red districts with his own town halls. (Walz also took a shot at Schumer’s decision, saying in an episode of Newsom’s podcast released Tuesday that “we gave up our leverage.”)
But most of Pritzker’s criticism remained focused on Trump, with the governor calling Elon Musk “President Musk,” an emerging Democratic attack on the tech billionaire’s efforts to slash government spending. He also touted his talking points around boosting pocketbook issues before a wonky, policy-focused audience.
And he offered a more subtle dig against Republican members of Congress for being unwilling to stand up to Trump.
“Congress is dysfunctional and so dysfunctional now because people are just cowed by this administration,” Pritzker said. “They’re concerned about being primaried.”
