Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker stood before Texas Democrats on Wednesday and leveled a stunning accusation at the President of the United States, claiming Donald Trump is “a president suffering from dementia.”
The inflammatory remarks came just hours before Republicans opened a two-night convention in the same city, with Pritzker using the Dallas event to declare the GOP “clinically deranged and out of touch.”
The trip marks the billionaire Democrat’s latest move onto the national stage, coming one day after he launched a new political action committee called Ready for the Fight. The PAC is expected to pour at least $20 million into Democratic candidates ahead of the November election.
Pritzker’s spending power is formidable. Since his first gubernatorial run in 2018, he has spent more than $400 million on campaigns for himself and other Democratic Party candidates. Just last month, the governor added $65 million to his own gubernatorial campaign fund.
During his Dallas speech, Pritzker praised Texas Democrats for what he called their resistance to Republican governance. He recalled welcoming 40 Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas in August 2025 to deny state Republicans the quorum needed to pass new congressional maps.
“As it turns out, their resistance to the corrupt, mid-decade redistricting in Texas was the canary in the coal mine,” Pritzker said.
The governor credited Texas Democrats with inspiring action in other states.
“They are why Illinois got Indiana to back down from changing their map and why the people of Missouri took their MAGA secretary of state to court,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has used his personal wealth to become one of the most prolific political spenders in the Democratic Party. His willingness to attack Trump directly and fund candidates across the country has fueled speculation about his broader political ambitions.
The Ready for the Fight PAC represents his most significant step yet toward building a national political operation, giving him infrastructure to influence races far beyond Illinois.
Whether Illinois voters appreciate their governor’s focus on national politics remains to be seen. But with $20 million ready to deploy and a willingness to throw rhetorical punches at the president, Pritzker is making clear he intends to be a major player in Democratic politics.
