Pritzker and Sanford

Terry Sanford would applaud his protégé J.B. Pritzker’s fiery, fighting speech to New Hampshire Democrats last weekend – a full-throated denunciation of Trump that electrified the crowd andjolted the political world.

Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, declared, “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They must understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have.”

Pritzker got started in politics in North Carolina, working for Sanford’s winning U.S. Senate race in 1986.

Sanford was president of Duke University when he took Pritzker, a student then, under his wing. A canny fundraiser, Sanford no doubt knew that the Pritzkers owned Hyatt Hotels. Today, Pritzker is a billionaire and big Democratic donor.

He’s also in the 2028 presidential mix now – thanks to that speech.

Pritzker didn’t spare his own party:

“Fellow Democrats, for far too long we’ve been guilty of listening to a bunch of do-nothing political types who would tell us that America’s house is not on fire, even as the flames are licking their faces. We need to knock off the rust of poll-tested language, decades of stale decorum.

“Today, as the blaze reaches the rafters, the pundits and politicians — whose simpering timidity served as kindle for the arsonists — urge us now not to reach for a hose.

“Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people and trans kids and immigrants instead of their own lack of guts and gumption.”

He called HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. “a weird nepo baby who once stashed a dead bear in the back seat of his car” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “a washed-up Fox TV commentator”.

“Stop thinking we can reason or negotiate with a madman,” Pritzker said. Republicans enabling Trump should “feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history” their portraits will be relegated “to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors.”

Sanford has a place of honor in Pritzker’s hall of heroes

In 2024, Pritzker told an audience at Duke how he was inspired by Sanford.

As governor from 1961 to 1965, Sanford stood up against racial discrimination while George Wallace was standing in the schoolhouse door.

Sanford raised taxes to improve public schools and raise teachers’ pay.

He was one of few Southern Democrats to endorse John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Sanford had guts.

He was a paratrooper in World War II, was injured in combat and decorated for bravery fighting the Nazis.

More than any other Democratic politician today, Pritzker hasn’t hesitated to invoke the specter of Nazis.

He is Jewish; his ancestors fled pogroms in Ukraine.

In his State of the State speech in February, he said, “I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust.

“Here’s what I’ve learned: the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame. The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

“I’m watching with a foreboding dread at what is happening in our country right now…. The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems. I just have one question: What comes next?”

Pritzker is standing up to evil, just as Sanford did.

Sanford and his generation met the challenge.

Now Pritzker is challenging us.