Gov. JB Pritzker and three other Democratic state chief executives on Tuesday night called for Democrats to mobilize and protest outside Republican congressional offices to oppose President Donald Trump’s administrative actions following his first 100 days in office.
“If you’re not out there protesting in front of a Republican congressman’s office, or out in the street making your voice heard, or calling your friends in another state to have them do it, or showing up in Washington, D.C., in front of their offices, those Republican congressmen, then you’re not doing what’s necessary to put pressure on them to vote the right way,” he said.
Pritzker was joined by Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the unsuccessful 2024 vice presidential nominee, Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Kathy Hochul of New York in an hourlong, live-streamed question-and-answer event hosted by the MeidasTouch Network. The online site has used its social media platforms and other channels to sharply criticize Trump and Elon Musk, the presidential adviser who heads up the Department of Government Efficiency.
The governors were asked about formulating a new messaging strategy following the party’s poor showing last November and current public polling indicating dissatisfaction with Democrats for failing to address kitchen table issues and for not helping working families — once a core constituency.
The forum comes as Democrats also are trying to reconcile divisions between the party’s progressive wing and more moderate Democrats who feel the party’s leftward drift was a major factor to last year’s election results.
Of the three other governors, Hochul was the most vocal in echoing Pritzker’s call for Democrats to take their objections of Trump and Musk directly to members of the Republican-controlled House — with an eye toward the 2026 midterm elections.
“I believe that we all ought to be mobilizing. The best way for us to get across what we really believe is that you show up at your Republican congressman’s office and let them know: Quit shutting down veteran services. Quit taking away Social Security and Medicaid — and we know that’s what they’re about to do,” the New York governor said.
