(Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker won the Democratic nomination in the primary race and will seek a second term in November.
Pritzker, a billionaire scion of the Hyatt hotel fortune, defeated former Army Major Beverly Miles with 93% of the votes, according to early results from AP. So far, 13.5% of the votes were counted. Pritzker has contributed about $125 million of his own fortune into this campaign. Results of the GOP gubernatorial primary race have yet to be announced.
During the latter part of Pritzker’s first term, the state’s revenue topped projections amid an economic rebound, billions of dollars in federal stimulus flowed in and his administration boosted pension contributions and started to rebuild reserves. Illinois’s credit also has gotten upgrades from the three major rating firms, though it still remains the lowest-rated state.
While Pritzker, 57, has presided over a period when Illinois’s fiscal outlook has improved, he’s been criticized for rising crime and most recently the announced headquarters departures of well-known, large companies including Boeing Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Citadel, billionaire Ken Griffin’s hedge fund.
Miles, hailing from the West Side of Chicago, has spent more than 20 years as a registered nurse. Miles entered the US Army in 1999 and retired in 2014, a career that has shaped her campaign to aid other veterans in the state. She has also focused on health care, violence prevention and education, and supports reparations for descendants of slaves.
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