Socialists in support of a billionaire

An interview with @PritzkerForPrez

In June, a bewildering new political Twitter account stormed onto the scene. Racking up over 11,000 followers (and counting) in just six weeks, Socialists for Pritzker, an account centered around hyping up a potential run for the White House from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, was rapidly taking over left-wing political Twitter.

Governor Pritzker, as you may know, is worth an estimated $3.6 billion, largely owing to his family ownership of the Hyatt hotel chain — so I was very intrigued that an account that seems to be genuine about its leftist politics would decide to promote Governor Pritzker as a potential primary challenger to Preisdent Joe Biden in 2024.

I reached out to the account owner, highlighting my past hard hitting journalism about deeply online political accounts, and he graciously agreed to set up an interview. The following is a transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for readability.

Can you introduce yourself?

Oh, I’m just a guy from Illinois who got bored on a…