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Billionaire Jennifer Pritzker made a donation to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign last month.
COURTESY OF TAWANI ENTERPRISES, INC.
Billionaire Jennifer Pritzker gave $2,000 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign last month, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission this week. It’s a small sum for a billionaire, but notable nonetheless, given that she poured more than $250,000 into committees supporting Donald Trump four years ago.
Pritzker is an heir to the Hyatt hotels fortune, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and the world’s only known transgender billionaire. She supported Trump during his 2016 run, but after Trump announced a transgender military ban on Twitter in 2017, she quickly spoke out against it.
In July 2017 she called his tweets “careless” in a Chicago Sun-Times opinion piece, and wrote, “President Trump’s statement hurts our armed forces and shows a callous disregard for the rights of American citizens. Furthermore, it shows little or no effort on the president’s part to thoughtfully consider the issue.”
“I have hoped the Republican Party would reform from within and end its assault on the LGBTQ community,” Pritzker wrote later, in a Washington Post opinion piece addressing transgender military service, published last year. “When the GOP asks me to deliver six- or seven-figure contributions for the 2020 elections, my first response will be: Why should I contribute to my own destruction?”
Pritzker, who also donated $2,000 to the campaign of libertarian candidate Jo Jorgenson and $27,000 to the Libertarian National Committee, is one of several billionaire Pritzker heirs to give money to Biden’s presidential campaign. Jennifer’s billionaire cousin Penny Pritzker, who served in the Obama Administration cabinet as secretary of commerce, has hosted at least one fundraiser for Biden. Another cousin, John Pritzker, has given at least $650,000 to pro-Biden super-PACs this year.
Last year, Jennifer Pritzker donated $1,000 to the presidential campaign of former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg.
It’s not clear if Jennifer plans to offer any more support to Biden before November. A representative for Pritzker did not respond to a question asking how much money she’s willing to put behind the former vice president.