Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois is going all-in on transgender rights at a time when fellow Democrats question whether that is the hill to die on.
Looking to chart a path for his soul-stricken party and his own 2028 White House run, Mr. Pritzker is pledging to be “one of the loudest in the room screaming for justice and fighting against tyranny” and vowing to defend vulnerable communities from President Trump.
“I know there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist,” Mr. Pritzker said at the recent Human Rights Campaign Los Angeles dinner. “Well, I am. We are. We will,” he said.
Mr. Pritzker, who has a transgender cousin, said the fight over transgender rights is part of a broader battle against the Trump administration and a Republican Party that opposes universal health care and raising the federal minimum wage but seeks to roll back the clock on cultural issues, dole out tax breaks to the rich and cut programs for the needy.
It is a sharp and aggressive left-wing message that is helping rev up the party’s base. But it is also giving pause to the Democratic Party establishment that’s still trying to figure out why they got steamrolled in last year’s elections.
Mr. Pritzker, who is the billionaire heir to Hyatt Hotels, said the only way to get the attention of a bully such as Mr. Trump is a “punch in the face.” He also has referred to Mr. Musk as “President Musk” and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency as “DOGEbags.”
“Never before in my life have I called for mass activism — but this is the moment,” he told the LGBTQ activists at the dinner. “Take to the streets, protest, show up at town halls, jam the phone lines in Congress … and afford not a moment of peace to any elected representatives who are aiding and abetting Musk and Trump’s illegal power grab.”
Just over two months into Mr. Trump’s second term, Democrats — relegated to the minority in Congress and the Supreme Court — are struggling to slow the Republicans’ aggressive push to upend the status quo and reshape Washington.
Democrats have the lowest favorability ever, according to a recent CNN poll, which showed the dip is tied to disillusioned Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents.
Meanwhile, they are staring at a challenging 2026 midterm map that leaves little hope of flipping the Senate.
The bleak times have forced the party to look inward and evaluate what needs to change to dig themselves out of the political hole.
Mr. Prtizker isn’t the only Democrat taking a hard tack to the left.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has headlined rallies with Sen. Bernard Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont who has warned Democrats for decades they are too focused on Wall Street and not focused enough on Main Street.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, however, is charting a more moderate course. He launched a podcast in which he is pushing the party toward the middle, including hosting a pair of MAGA celebrities — Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk — on the show.
Mr. Newsom irked the party’s most liberal members by ceding ground on transgender rights, saying it is unfair for transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
It’s a stark contrast with Mr. Pritzker, who warned that the Trump administration has poisoned the national debate — including on LGBTQ issues — so profoundly that Americans can kiss goodbye the idea that the Republican Party will find “its better angels.”
“I will not let hope be a blindfold and I won’t continue to advocate that we wage a conventional political fight when what we really need is to become street fighters,” Mr. Pritzker told the LGBTQ crowd. “Let me be clear: the Trump administration and Congress are looking to reverse every single victory this community has won over the last 50 years,” he said.
“Right now it is drag queens reading books and transgender people serving in the military,” he said. “Tomorrow, it is your marriage license and your job they want to take.”
The governor is also waging a battle with the Democratic Party’s establishment, which worries Democrats have gone too far on social issues and identity politics.
“Of course, he’s trying to position himself as one of the leaders of the national party when there is no clear leader,” said Matthew Geras, a political science professor at the University of Illinois Springfield.
Mr. Pritzker still must decide whether he wants to run next year for another term as governor or turn his full attention to the national stage.
His focus, however, has been evident since at least his mid-February State of the State address. He warned that the Trump GOP is using an “authoritarian playbook” in which they “point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.”
“After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities — once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends — after that,” he said, “when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face, what comes next?”
