By Emily Schmall and Karl Plume
CHICAGO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The town of Shirley, Illinois, population 135, is an unlikely place for a campaign stop.
Yet billionaire Democrat JB Pritzker traveled there to spar with his opponent in his bid for a third term as governor of the state in the November midterms. At Funk Farms, a 200-year-old corn, soybean and livestock operation there that was once represented by young lawyer and future president Abraham Lincoln, he extolled the virtues of farming.
“Agriculture
drives an enormous part of Illinois' economy. We've got to do all we can to weather the storm and get Washington to take a different course,” Pritzker said at the August event.
Pritzker's visits to farms across Illinois reflect a broader Democratic effort to capitalize on farmer frustration over lost export markets and rising costs tied to President Donald Trump's tariffs and war with Iran. But analysts see his trips as largely an effort to cultivate a rural profile before a possible 2028 run for the White House, given he does not need farmers to win in November.
A Republican has not won statewide office in Illinois since 2014, and most political forecasters give Pritzker a solid lead over Republican candidate Darren Bailey, a third-generation soybean farmer and former state lawmaker whom he defeated by about 12 percentage points in 2022.
Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt hotels fortune, also boasts a campaign war chest that dwarfs Bailey's. It was recently replenished with $65 million of his own money.
“He’s auditioning,” said Brian J. Gaines, a political science professor at the University of Illinois. “He’s not banking on Illinois farmers but if he finds something that works, he’s going to keep it in his pocket because he’s thinking about the presidential contest to come.”
Pritzker refused to be drawn in on whether he plans to run for president in 2028, saying Democrats need to focus on winning in the midterms first. "Anybody that's focused on anything beyond November 3rd, as far as I'm concerned, is getting it wrong," he said in an interview.
'A POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY'
This month, Pritzker toured Halpin Farms, a family grain and cattle operation about 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Chicago, promoting a pilot program of low-interest state loans to build grain silos. He talked about how agriculture remained a critical industry in Illinois, even as he looks to quantum computing and advanced manufacturing to drive economic growth in the state.
"Family farms are going bankrupt. It's near impossible to make a profit now because of the high price of diesel, because of the war in Iran, and because of the trade wars that are causing the farmers not to be able to sell their goods abroad," Pritzker told Reuters. "Right now, we need to make sure our farmers stay alive and stay in business."
Farmers in Illinois have struggled as Trump's trade wars cut off markets for US soybeans and the US-Israeli war with Iran led to soaring fuel and fertilizer prices, though the White House says it has "strengthened the farm safety net."
If Pritzker can demonstrate that he can appeal to a traditionally conservative bloc like farmers, Gaines said, it could help him distinguish himself from Democrats like former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom, potential contenders with considerably less credibility in the farm belt.
Pritzker is not the only Democrat courting that strategy.
This week, US Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, flew to rural Georgia to highlight the impact of tariffs and higher production costs while former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg traveled to rural Virginia to rally for congressional candidates there. Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff for former President Barack Obama, has been up and down the Midwestern Corn Belt and in the Deep South in recent months to address what he calls "healthcare deserts" hit by Trump administration policies.
"There's a political opportunity" for Democrats in rural areas, Emanuel told Reuters.
Bailey acknowledges that the Republican administration's trade policies and war in Iran have hurt farmers.
"I think everyone would agree that we're ready for the conflict in Iran to be over with, and would have hoped that these tariffs would have ended a long time ago," he said.
But Bailey said that Pritzker’s focus on Trump missed the point – that slashing property taxes and doing away with an estate tax would help farmers much more than “pandering,” as would embracing some of the austerity measures that farmers have undertaken to survive high costs.
GOVERNMENT RELIEF
The Trump administration is expected to send more than $50 billion to farmers this year, the second-largest relief package in US history. Yet many farmers say the checks don't make up for the high input costs.
"We're getting beat up," said John Bartman, 48, a corn and soybean farmer in Marengo, Illinois, adding that "a bailout doesn't make us whole. It helps the banks out more than the farmer."
Bartman, who plans to vote for Pritzker, said he thinks farmers will value the governor's efforts to salvage important trade relationships.
In August, Pritzker signed an agreement with Indonesia to expand agricultural trade with the fourth-largest market for US soybeans. He previously led trade missions to Canada and Japan in 2024. And in April 2025, as the Trump administration imposed tariffs on imports from most trading partners on what it called "Liberation Day," Pritzker was in Mexico City to promote Illinois corn.
That visit to Mexico - the top market for US corn - landed a $55 million manufacturing deal, but did not bag new deals to buy Illinois corn.
"As a governor, there's only so much you can do about federal policy," Pritzker said.
The speculation of a presidential run has soared since last year, when Trump launched an aggressive deportation campaign in the Chicago area, briefly deploying the National Guard.
Pritzker denounced the campaign as federal overreach, comparing the immigration raids in Chicago to the antisemitic pogroms his Ukrainian ancestors escaped from.
Pritzker has also used Trump's mockery of his weight as a foil, speaking candidly about his struggles with overeating and writing about his GLP-1 journey on Substack.
At the Illinois State Fair in August, he praised deep-fried treats and later that month helped Chicago set a record for most people taking a shot of Malort at the same time, swigging the intensely bitter liqueur straight from the bottle.
Standing in front of a row of Black Angus cows at Halpin Farms, he joked, "these are my people. I've certainly eaten enough of them."
(Reporting by Emily Schmall and Karl Plume in Chicago and Gardner, Illinois. Editing by Michael Learmonth and Deepa Babington)
