Think Big Bus Tour Ends With Stops in Rockford and Hampton

Hampton, IL — On the final day of his 22-stop, statewide Think Big bus tour, JB Pritzker made stops in Rockford and Hampton celebrating Labor Day. On his final two stops, he discussed his statewide, grassroots campaign and his priorities for creating jobs throughout the state.

On the first stop of the day, JB marched in the Rockford Labor Day parade with local union members:

From WREX:

WREX: JB Pritzker marches in Rockford Labor Day Parade

Illinois gubernatorial candidate JB Pritzker marched in Rockford’s Labor Day parade today.

Pritzker is one of nearly a dozen democrats vying for the state’s top seat. He says many of the labor unions support him and that’s one reason he decided to come to Rockford’s parade.  

“Well Rockford is a place of working families i mean this place was built on the hard work of not only labor unions but people who all across this region that have worked hard to build up Rockford. Now it’s time we had a governor that’s on their side.”

He then celebrated the end of the Think Big Bus Tour at the Rock Island Democrats Salute to Labor Picnic at the Illiniwek Campgrounds:

From WQAD:

Illiniwek Campgrounds was the last stop for gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker on his six-day tour through southern and central Illinois, which focused on ways to create job growth down state.

“We’ve got a 5 point jobs creation plan and we’ve talked about it across the state and listened. What we’ve heard is we really need to focus on infrastructure in this state,” says Pritzker.

From the Dispatch Argus:

Jim Bivens, of Milan, arrived early with his family to set up lawn chairs in front of the stage. 

Proudly wearing a “JB for Governor” sticker, Mr. Bivens already has chosen Mr. Pritzker as his gubernatorial pick.

“I’m very interested in what he’s going to do if we could get him elected governor,” Mr. Bivens said. “What sticks out for me is he wants to feed the children in school. He wants to make sure all the kids have a good breakfast. It’s important to me that he’s taking care of everybody, not just the rich or the poor.”

Arriving with running mate Juliana Stratton in a sleek, slogan-wrapped touring bus, Mr. Pritzker ended his five-day statewide Think Big bus tour in Hampton.

“We need to put Springfield back on the side of working families in this state,” he said. “For too long, we’ve had a governor who has created crisis after crisis, which is affecting working families.”

Mr. Pritzker said Gov. Rauner wants to lower wages and get rid of labor unions — a message popular with many in the crowd who were proudly wearing union T-shirts.

“We need somebody who is going to stand up for our labor unions, for our workers, and for our working families,” Mr. Pritzker said. “We’re not attracting jobs to the state. We had a half percent of job growth last year. It’s not enough to create any new jobs for people.”

From the Quad City Times:

Quad-City Democrats got a chance to get a closeup look at most of their party’s gubernatorial hopefuls Monday, as four candidates for the nomination showed up for the 50th annual Salute to Labor picnic at Illiniwek Forest Preserve. […]

[Pritzker was] telling the crowd he had plans for improving education, job creation and health care, as well as helping agriculture and manufacturing. He also appealed to the party faithful by calling President Donald Trump “a racist and a xenophobe,” a claim he’s made before.