Pritzker Elected Illinois Governor, Promises To 'Fight For Truth'

CHICAGO — Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker was declared the projected winner of the race for Illinois governor over Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner within a half-hour of polls closing. With nearly all of the votes counted, Pritzker led Rauner by 54 percent to 39 percent and a margin of more than 600,000. The total price tag of Pritzker's largely self-financed venture has yet to be determined, but Rauner, who conceded less than an hour of polls closing across the state, was handed a historic defeat – the only incumbent governor to lose by double-digits after a single four-year term since the 19th century.

After Rauner's concession, the candidates spoke to their supporters at Chicago hotels Tuesday night. The outgoing governor looked to paint his tenure as a positive step forward in his concession speech at the Drake Hotel he delivered about an hour after voting ended, thanking Illinoisans for the opportunity to have served them.

“This election is over, but that does not meet the end of the change for the state of Illinois that we need. This is a time for us to come together, this is a time for us to unite,” Rauner said. “It’s been a privilege, it’s been a humbling honor to serve you, to serve all the people of our great state.” The governor singled out uniformed service members, law enforcement officers and teachers for special appreciation and said it was time to stand together and move forward to find solutions.

“I encourage all of us to put aside partisan politics, to put aside rancor and hard feelings. Now is the time to move forward. There is so much work to be done. We have made great progress in the past four years, but we can’t let this progress end.” He called on Democrats to work together to find common ground and explore successful policy solutions in other states like pension and regulation reform, term limits and nonpartisan redistricting. “Let’s realize that many states have made the exact changes that we need to make in Illinois – yes they have – they have made them in other states on a bipartisan basis led by Democrats.”

Rauner said he ran for governor four years ago to “save our state.” He said his administration made significant advances toward that end, and the change he sought for the state remains the change the state needs.

Pritzker spoke to supporters on the other end of the Loop, delivering an unusually flowery victory address at the Marquis Marriott around an hour after Rauner spoke.

“Voting is an act of optimism that the levers of democracy still work. You embody that optimism. You light the beacon fire on the hill of history that signals from one generation to another that these are the things that we stand and fight for,” Pritzker said. He went on to use the place he declared his candidacy last year, Grand Crossing, as a profound reminder that “we have no right to walk away from the broken places of our past with no thought about how to mend them for our future...In Illinois we have a history of building ourselves up from broken places and the bonds we build in the process become the steel girders that hold us all together.”

“There is a special faith in the future, a light that burns in people that know but the agony of the hill and the freedom of the hilltop. And as your governor I want to hoist that light high and let it show us the way.” He singled out small businesses, young people, community of color, immigrants and women, especially women of color, for special appreciation.

“The women of this day who stand on the crest of the wave of history and know that it comes to today with the force of the millions of voices long silenced and suddenly let free, you wear the mantle of this moment well.”

The governor-elect said the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was not inclusive. Each generation, he said, has “a debt to pay to the promises made at the alter of our founding.”

“In the battle to ensure true equality we are allowed to know fear but we are not allowed to live by it. We must realize that the United States is not one nostalgic narrative, that our story is both about the neo-nazis trying to march in Skokie and about the Holocaust memorial built there three decades later.”

In his pursuit of "fulfilling [the] destiny" of Illinois, Pritzker promised to fight for "health care for everyone," "for well-paid teachers and a quality education," "equal pay for equal work," "a criminal justice system that is truly trust," "environment policies that are based on science," "a responsible state budget," "gun safety laws that protect our families," "for jobs, for a living wage, for strong labor unions," "a state that welcomes immigrants" and "for the truth."

The race featured two of the richest candidates ever to run for office against one another. Rauner has a net worth believed to be about a half-billion dollars, while his Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker is estimated to be worth more than $3 billion. The governor won his first foray into elected office in 2014 with a promise to "shake up Springfield" by lowering taxes, reducing government corruption and reigning in spending to stave off financial crisis in the state. Instead, he entangled himself in a two-year budget standoff with House Speaker Mike Madigan over his 44-point "Turnaround Agenda," leaving billions in unpaid bills and cuts to state infrastructure and services. His opponent, an even wealthier figure who has also never before held elected office, defeated him by more than 650,000 votes.

Rauner, 61, was able to handily outspend Republican primary opponents and former Gov. Pat Quinn four years ago as a private equity multimillionaire and political novice to win the GOP primary by fewer than 24,000 votes and the general election by election 50.3 percent to 46.4 percent. But the governor found himself outspent two to three times over by Pritkzer, 53, who has contributed at least $171.5 million to his campaign. The longtime Democratic party fundraiser, one-time Congressional candidate, venture capitalist, philanthropist and heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune has largely self-financed a race that threatens to top the $280 million price tag of California's 2010 gubernatorial contest. Pritzker has already long surpassed losing candidate Meg Whitman's record of donations to herself.

JB Pritzker Spending Nearly Doubles Gov. Rauner In Home Stretch »

While campaigning Sunday in Morris, the governor called polls showing him trailing Pritzker by double digits "baloney." He also said his opponent was attempting buy the election with "a bunch of lies” and “phony baloney," the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Rauner warned of a dire future of one-party rule consisting of higher taxes, more spending and another decade of highly partisan legislative redistricting were he to lose his re-election bid Tuesday. The governor managed history in defeat, according to the Associated Press. Since the 19th century in Illinois, only two incumbents have ever lost by more than 10 percentage points, only two governors have ever lost re-election following a single four-year term and no one has ever done both.

Election results

Return to Patch Tuesday night for the latest vote tally. Subscribe to free News Alerts for election results. The polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7 p.m. NOTE: Tuesday's results are unofficial and do not include provisional and late absentee ballots.

Humbled Rauner Admits Errors, Pleads For 2nd Term

Both candidates were confronted with scandals during the campaign. A criminal probe has been opened into the Rauner administration's handling of a Legionnaire's disease outbreak at a state-run veterans' home in Quincy, which led to the deaths of 14 people starting in 2015. (At the final televised debate Rauner said "so-called 'criminal investigation' is a political ploy to divert attention from the tax fraud that Mr. Pritzker has engaged in and I believe it's a shameful abuse of power by the attorney general.") But WBEZ reported the governor's office; Nirav Shah, his appointee as state public health director who took credit for the "decisive, coordinated response" to the outbreak; and former press secretary Lindsay Walters, now a deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, contributed to a six-day delay in notifying the public of the threat of the bacteria.

Families Sue State After 12 Residents Die, Dozens More Sickened

Meanwhile, Pritzker was confronted by the release of a Cook County inspector general's report that labeled his family's efforts to reclassify his secondary Gold Coast mansion as uninhabitable (in part by famously temporarily removing its toilets) as a scheme to defraud. His property tax appeals wound up saving him more than $330,000, money he later returned, not including money gained from the reassessment of his $25-35 million mansion next door. The Pritkzer campaign called the report a politically motivated leak. His campaign also had to fend off allegations in a federal lawsuit filed by staffers claiming it engaged in racial discrimination.

Report Finds Pritzker Got $330,000 Through "Means Of False Representations"

There were two other candidates on the ballot statewide, while other candidates, including Wauconda man JO 753, have registered write-in campaigns. Libertarian Kash Jackson has run on his own experience facing a contempt of court ruling in a child support court proceedings and the efficiency of his ultra-low-budget campaign. Sen. Sam McCann has been financed by the same union-backed political committees that endorsed Pritzker. His campaign has functioned as a payback of sorts against Rauner, who allegedly said he would "destroy you and your family." In the one debate in which the two major party candidates were exposed to Jackson and McCann, the downstate ex-Republican — he created the "Conservative Party" for his gubernatorial bid — called Rauner "liar and a thief."

IL Election 2018: Most Polls Close, Real-Time Results To Begin

Rauner's closing arguments on his "Our Home Our Fight" tour combined messages touting his accomplishments ("A national award from black business owners," and "a national leader on criminal justice reform, mental health services, digitizing government and future energy jobs.") and profane and arguably homophobic warnings of the "unholy union" of a wedding between J.B. Pritzker and Speaker Mike Madigan.

We've accomplished a lot, but there's more to do. That's why we need your vote on November 6th. #twill #ILGov pic.twitter.com/hq0BbCpRml
— Bruce Rauner (@BruceRauner) October 29, 2018

Speaking at a rally Sunday in Lisle, Rauner promised he would grow 500,000 new jobs in his second term.

"We just did a nine-day bus tour, we covered the entire state of Illinois. And everywhere we went, people came up to me and said, 'stay strong, don't back down, don't give in,'" Rauner said. "A lot of times, they even went on to say, 'I'm a Democrat, I don't always support Republicans, but I like what you and Evelyn are doing. We need lower property taxes in this state, we need more jobs in this state, and we need term limits on our politicians."

After the governor and First Lady Diana Rauner voted Tuesday morning in Winnetka, Rauner described the race as "one of the most important elections in state history" and described what his desires would be were he to be granted a second term.

"I'd like to build on the success we've had in our first term. More education funding – want to expand that. Job growth – had great success growing the economy, want to create even more jobs," Rauner said. "Would like to bring down our property taxes by getting the mandates off from Springfield and free up our school districts and communities to run themselves as they see fit. And very importantly, I hope we can finally get term limits on our elected officials in my second term."

The challenger's closing message is that Rauner has not earned another term in office. A positive spot released last week described the Democrat as a "no-nonsense problem solver" and cited his newspaper endorsements, while an ad from the Pritzker campaign's "Rauner Failed" brand replaying the governor's 2014 request to "throw me out of office in four years if I don't deliver results" remains on heavy rotation heading into Election Day.

On Sunday, Pritkzer gave opening remarks before former President Barack Obama spoke at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago on the 10th anniversary of his election. He called for a state where "prosperity is inclusive" with "an economy that works for everybody," and one which welcomes immigrants and "the common humanity among all of us," as he linked Obama's vision with the agenda of Illinois Democratic Party candidates on the ballot.

"We know that progress hasn't been consistent in America. History books don't document moments of silent struggle and sacrifice, but in those periods of setbacks, we strengthen our resolve," Pritzker said. "President Obama understood that. Cynics said that his plans were just too lofty. Well, that didn't stop him."

On Monday, Pritkzer and Stratton traveled with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Treasurer Mike Frerichs and attorney general nominee state Sen. Kwame Raoul to rallies in Rockford, Moline, Belleville, Marion, Springfield and Peoria.

Pritzker made his final pitch around the Chicago area on Election Day. He appeared at lunchtime Tuesday at Manny's Deli in Chicago with a large contingent of statewide and Chicagoland Democrats. He said people see Rauner as a "threat to their way of life."

"We've seen a huge turnout. People are excited, not just about the race for governor, but for the race for attorney general and up and down the ticket, there are real competitive races everywhere in this state and Cook County too," Pritzker told reporters. "I think people are showing up for Democrats, that's what they're showing up for."

Watch Pritzker's victory speech:

More About Candidates for Governor

Read more about the candidates from their campaign websites:

• Kash Jackson (L)
• Sam McCann (C)
• Bruce Rauner (R)
• J.B. Pritzker (D)