Pritzker launches abortion rights group Think Big America

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker launched a national nonprofit group focused on protecting and expanding abortion rights in states across the country, part of a broader mission of “combating far-right extremism.”

Think Big America, a take-off of the “Think Big” campaign theme from Pritzker's first run for governor in 2018, will operate as a 501(c)(4) issue-advocacy organization. Think Big America plans to focus on promoting ballot measures that would codify abortion rights. It’s supporting ballot measures in Nevada, Ohio and Arizona.

Democrats have seen a run of success by focusing on abortion in a number of states since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year. There are signs that Republicans are trying to go on the offensive, with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently launching ads that paint Democrats as "extreme" on abortion and alleging that they don't back any limits on the procedure. But Democrats see abortion rights as a winning issue for them.

A number of abortion rights nonprofits already work on measures to codify abortion rights, and Think Big America would add a new flush of cash from the personally wealthy Illinois governor.

Think Big America is modeled after NextGen America, a dark money group founded by billionaire Tom Steyer that advocated on climate change.

Nine members of Pritzker’s political team, including Mike Ollen, who was Pritzker’s campaign manager, have stayed in place since his reelection campaign last year and will split their time between the governor’s political work and running the new organization.

The group’s board of directors includes several Pritzker allies, including businessperson Desirée Rogers, who worked in President Barack Obama’s administration, Illinois state Rep. Margaret Croke and Chicago Ald. Michelle Harris, three advisers to the governor.

The group also has an eye for expanding down the road to address issues such as book bans, LGBTQ rights or gender-affirming care, issues where Democrats have often played defense in recent years.

“Extremism poses an existential threat to our democracy. And I take this threat very seriously,” Pritzker says in a video about the new group.

The Democratic governor announced his new organization a day after taking part in the annual fundraising luncheon for the Chicago-based Personal PAC, which supports candidates who back abortion rights.

Pritzker’s team isn’t sharing how much he’s seeded to get Think Big America up and running. For now, he’s the sole funder, but as a political advocacy nonprofit, the group takes donations. It declined to say if it would make subsequent donors public.

Pritzker has long been involved with abortion rights. He often shares that he attended abortion rights marches with his mother, and he signed the Reproductive Health Act of 2019, which protects access to reproductive health care in the state of Illinois — including abortion — into law. The governor also contributed to abortion rights efforts in Kansas, Wisconsin and Ohio in the last year and a half.