Pritzker to Face Rauner in Illinois Governor Race

CHICAGO — The race for Illinois governor has come down to this: the multimillionaire versus the billionaire.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, a private-equity executive seeking a second term in office, prevailed in a tough battle for the Republican nomination on Tuesday, while J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire philanthropist and venture capitalist from a prominent Chicago family, won the Democratic nomination for governor, according to The Associated Press.

Their victories promise a contest that will be fiercely fought and dominated by big money, with each candidate controlling tremendous sums of personal wealth to spend on his campaign. The two men have already raised more than $150 million, on track to become one of the most expensive governor’s races in history.

In the coming general election campaign for governor, Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt hotel chain, is expected to present a serious threat to Rauner, who has alienated voters on both the left and the right during his rocky term. For more than three years, a frustrated Rauner has battled Michael J. Madigan, the powerful Democratic speaker of the House; struggled to implement his own agenda; and, in the process, become one of the most vulnerable governors in the nation.

But Rauner, 61, survived a challenge from Jeanne Ives, a Republican legislator and Army veteran who took a hard-right stance on social issues and attacked him for being insufficiently conservative.

Rauner appealed for unity in a speech Tuesday night, imploring Republicans, independents and Democrats to give him another term in office to institute needed change.

“Let’s work together to bridge the divide,” he said. “The election in November will be a choice, a clear choice, a choice between someone who will stand up to the machine and someone who has long been part of it. Between someone who will fight for hardworking families and someone who will protect the political insiders.”

Pritzker, who has donated close to $70 million to his own campaign, fell short of 50 percent of the Democratic vote, but still outpaced Chris Kennedy, a businessman and a son of Robert F. Kennedy, and Daniel Biss, a suburban state senator.

In an acceptance speech before a crowd of supporters here Tuesday night, Pritzker, 53, called for universal health care, fair wages, protections for labor unions and the legalization of marijuana. He vowed to be a champion for the needy, for children, and for immigrants who have come to Illinois seeking a better life.

“This campaign is about a fight for economic security, about jobs and wages,” Pritzker said. “I choose to fight for the struggling. I choose to fight for the black and brown communities across our state, for the one thing, the one and only thing you’ve asked for for so long — fairness.”

“Are you ready for a fight?” he said, drawing wild applause.

Pritzker and Rauner are fighting to lead a state with deeply entrenched problems. Whoever wins will have to contend with Illinois’ vastly underfunded pension systems; worries about residents fleeing the state; and a sagging economy downstate, where manufacturing jobs have disappeared, leaving many residents unemployed and financially struggling. Both men have moved in elite Chicago circles of business and philanthropy for decades, yet they did not share a personal relationship. In an interview last month, Pritzker said he barely knew Rauner, and was better acquainted with his wife, Diana Rauner, who runs a public-private partnership focused on early childhood.

Rauner, a native of Chicago’s wealthy north suburbs who made a fortune as the chairman of a private-equity firm, presented himself to voters in 2013 as an outsider, a Harley-riding political newcomer with a folksy affect who would fix Illinois’ financial problems and make the state more attractive to companies.

Rauner’s tenure has been marked by a budget impasse that paralyzed Illinois, especially social-service agencies, arts organizations and public universities that depend on state funding. It was finally resolved last July when Democrats in the state Legislature overrode Rauner’s veto, ending the stalemate and passing a budget.

During his first run for office, he rarely mentioned social issues like abortion and managed to attract sizable support from independents and Democrats. As governor, he angered religious conservatives by signing a bill that expanded abortion coverage for women on Medicaid.

Last week, he vetoed a piece of legislation that would have required gun dealers to obtain state licenses, a move that was widely seen as an appeal to Republicans in rural downstate Illinois.

Ives, a member of the Illinois House, positioned herself as the true conservative in the race. But she trailed Rauner in fundraising, raising $4 million to his $100 million. She criticized Rauner over abortion rights, immigration and his handling of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at a state-run veterans home that has left 13 people dead since 2015.

In the campaign’s final days, the Democratic Governors Association sneaked into the fray, running a television ad attacking Ives as “too conservative” — presumably a veiled attempt to give Ives a boost in the hopes that she could overtake Rauner in the primary.