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Chuck Schumer’s government funding decision was “wrong” — but now is not the time for civil war.
That’s according to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who gave fellow Democrats clear advice on Tuesday as the Senate minority leader kept trying to quell progressive fury over his vote to advance the Trump-backed funding bill. Pritzker told Semafor that he disagrees with Schumer’s decision, but he wants his party to stop “splintering” over it.
“I do not think that Democrats should be jumping into internecine warfare,” Pritzker, one of several governors who are already making it onto presidential short lists ahead of 2028, told Semafor when asked about the internal row.
He then invoked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York progressive who’s tangled openly with Schumer over the funding fight.
Schumer “was wrong” to support the funding bill, Pritzker added, “but I also know that he wants, those [Democrats who voted yes] want, the same things that AOC and I want — which is, we’ve got to overcome what we see as the crumbling of a constitutional republic and the taking away of services from people who matter.”
Pritzker isn’t the only governor in the Democratic presidential mix to criticize Schumer as the New York Democrat gets pummeled by the left for his handling of the funding fight, but he was the most pointed. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said over the weekend that Schumer should have used his “leverage” better but also deemed himself “not an expert in the DC stuff.”
And it’s not clear that activists who continue to call for Schumer’s departure from party leadership will heed Pritzker’s counsel to avoid an “internal fight” over his future. Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who fought Trump alongside Schumer during the president’s first term, added her own jab on Tuesday even while saying she has confidence in him.
“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” Pelosi said during an appearance in her home state. “I think that’s what happened the other day.”
Schumer reiterated on ABC’s The View earlier in the day that he’s steadfast in his position and made his decision out of a firm belief that a government shutdown would have proven more harmful to the US public.
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Pritzker, 60, appeared Tuesday at the liberal Center for American Progress for a sit-down with its newly returned leader, Neera Tanden, about his broader policy priorities and views on offering an alternative to Trump’s agenda. While on stage, he praised his state’s junior senator, Tammy Duckworth, for describing herself as a “hell no” on the funding bill.
Duckworth’s senior colleague, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, is on the verge of his own decision about a reelection run after three Democratic colleagues opted for retirement. When Semafor asked if he would support Durbin running again next year, at age 81, Pritzker answered yes — with a caveat.
“I’ve known Dick Durbin for a long time, and he has been a good United States senator from Illinois. Again, he voted the wrong way on the” funding bill, Pritzker said. (Durbin also advanced the funding plan last week.)
He then added that, while “I don’t know what [Durbin’s] planning to do,” Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is “spectacular, and she may become a candidate for Senate, and I think she would be an amazing senator.”
Notable
- Stratton is readying a Senate bid, per Politico.