CHICAGO — Four Democratic state chief executives on Tuesday night called for Democrats to mobilize and protest outside Republican congressional offices to oppose President Donald Trump’s administrative actions following his first 100 days in office.

“It’s time to fight," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said during a virtual town hall. "Everybody has to get up, stand up, speak out, show up. And if you can’t go somewhere to do that, well, go online and make sure you’re speaking up and showing up online. And if you can’t do that, how about calling your congressperson, your senator to make your voice heard? Everybody has got to stand up for not only what’s best for themselves and their families, but also their neighbors and their friends."

The potential 2028 presidential aspirant continued: “If you’re not out there protesting in front of a Republican congressman’s office, or out in the street making your voice heard, or calling your friends in another state to have them do it, or showing up in Washington, D.C., in front of their offices, those Republican congressmen, then you’re not doing what’s necessary to put pressure on them to vote the right way.”

Pritzker was joined by Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the unsuccessful 2024 vice presidential nominee, Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Kathy Hochul of New York in an hourlong, livestreamed question-and-answer event hosted by the MeidasTouch Network. The online site has used its social media platforms and other channels to sharply criticize Trump and Elon Musk, the presidential adviser who heads up the “Department of Governmental Efficiency.”

The governors were asked about formulating a new messaging strategy following the party’s poor showing last November and current public polling indicating dissatisfaction with Democrats for failing to address kitchen table issues and for not helping working families — once a core constituency.

The forum comes as Democrats also are trying to reconcile divisions between the party’s progressive wing and more moderate Democrats who feel the party’s leftward drift was a major factor to last year’s election results.

Of the three other governors, Hochul was the most vocal in echoing Pritzker’s call for Democrats to take their objections of Trump and Musk directly to members of the Republican-controlled House — with an eye toward the 2026 midterm elections.

“I believe that we all ought to be mobilizing. The best way for us to get across what we really believe is that you show up at your Republican congressman’s office and let them know: Quit shutting down veteran services. Quit taking away Social Security and Medicaid — and we know that’s what they’re about to do,” the New York governor said.

“Don’t make it easy on them to stand blindly with Donald Trump and not feel the consequences of it. They must know if they’ve supported Donald Trump’s policies that they’re hurting the people who put them in office,” she said.

Walz, who was on the losing Democratic ticket in November with presidential nominee Kamala Harris, said the country knew what it was getting with a second Trump presidency and referred to his tenure so far as “100 days of crap” and Pritzker called it “disastrous,” while Healey said that, on the economy, “the one thing that he ran on, he has been an abysmal failure” over his on-again, off-again tariff policies.

“Donald Trump killed a lot of things,” Hochul added. “What he killed was killing our economy. He’s killing education. He’s killing health care. But you know what? He’s also killed complacency.”

“I don’t think there’s an American alive right now who’s watching what is unfolding over these last 100 days — and there’s 1,362 more to go — that are feeling complacent or apathetic and are going to sit on the sidelines,” she said. “No. No. No. They are energized. They’re mobilized. They’re ready to organize.”

Pritzker repeated his belief that Democrats should unite around such issues as increasing the $7.35-per-hour minimum wage and enacting universal health care, acknowledging Democrats have different goals for achieving it but noting Republican opposition is unified and exemplified by pushing cuts in Medicaid assistance.

“We’ve got to speak plainly to the American people about what really matters,” he said. “Standing up for working families, about being the party that fights for the middle class and for the working class, for the most vulnerable in our country. And, we’ve got to make sure that people understand what we’re doing to get things done.”

The event occurred after Pritzker gained national attention for a fiery weekend speech before New Hampshire Democrats in which he declared that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace” as he called for “mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption” in telling Democrats they “must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box.”

While his rhetoric drew criticism from the White House, his address also called out “do-nothing Democrats” who want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption.”

Pritzker was not asked about his Democratic criticisms during the web event. But Walz defended progressive policies and urged Democrats to speak out for and push such an agenda.

“You can’t appease authoritarianism. Call out their crap and just know that that’s who they are,” the Minnesota governor said. “Stand proud on our progressive values. Stand proud that we’re feeding children. Stand proud that we care about the environment. Stand proud and get out there.”

Healey, who is gay, attacked Trump, Republicans and corporate CEOs for moving to end diversity inclusion programs, calling diversity a strength that benefits the nation. She blasted administration attempts to revoke the legal status for foreign students and said China is recruiting scientists and researchers on Massachusetts college campuses with promises to make up for cuts in federal grants.

“I guess it’ll be in China that we’re going to see those inventions and entrepreneurship and growth,” she said.

Prior to the event, Pritzker, through the governor’s official state office, released a statement titled “100 Days and 100 Ways: How Trump and Republicans are Hurting Illinois” that included a list of Trump policies the governor said are negatively affecting the state and its residents. He contended “their radical, extreme and cruel actions are raising costs for working families while chipping away at our Constitutional rights.”

“As attacks on our constitutional rights and on our economy continue, I will keep standing up for Illinois,” Pritzker said. “My administration will focus on improving affordability, growing our economy and keeping the Land of Lincoln a beacon of freedom and fairness.”

On Pritzker’s list were such items as “withholding approximately $2 billion in federal funding owed to the people of Illinois,” uncertainty over tariffs and “launching a trade war with Illinois’ largest trading partners, including Mexico and Canada,” threatening Medicaid coverage, blocking infrastructure funds, cutting funding for libraries and museums and undermining public safety.

Pritzker’s political operation, meanwhile, used the Trump 100-day mark to say it has begun to launch a series of videos aimed at highlighting Illinois residents whose lives have been adversely affected by the administration’s actions.

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