JB Pritzker, aka Coconutbigboy, Is Ready to Be Memed
The Illinois governor is subtly embracing his online persona as Genghis Khan.
Let the meme wars begin
WHEN TRIP VENTURELLA SAT DOWN AT his computer in 2022 and jokingly created the Twitter account “Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker,” he didn’t imagine it would amount to much.
A history and theater geek, Venturella thought it would be fun to meme-ify his governor, JB Pritzker, as the Mongol conqueror and empire-builder Genghis Khan. How could it not be hilarious to create janky photoshopped battle maps of Pritzker invading Michigan and Wisconsin, Venturella surmised. So, he registered the handle @Nomads4Pritzker, the bio for which reads: “We are nomadic warriors united by one dream—by the will of Tengri, we will anoint JB Pritzker the Khagan of America.”
Over time, the account came to resemble the best of the political Twitter of old: nerdy, often ridiculous memes meant to amuse more than to offend. Then it became something else entirely: a fountain of content for the pro-Pritzker community. Although the account has a modest 14,400 followers, the memes @Nomads4Pritzker creates find their way all across the internet—popping up in Reddit threads and Discord chats and fueling online discourse about Pritzker.
There’s one of Pritzker in Mongol warrior armor and another one of him sitting on a throne. There are too many to count of Pritzker riding a horse, waving a saber above his head. There’s another one of him with red laser eyes in front of a map of the “United State of Illinois.” And there’s plenty of shit-talking of other Midwest states.
But @Nomads4Pritzker is not the only mildly ironic, somewhat fanboyish pro-Pritzker account out there. Socialists for Pritzker has also amassed a respectable following, with their memes similarly finding their way across the various corners of the internet. And here’s the thing: This weird online culture that has begun to develop around Pritzker is more than just bad photoshops designed to generate a few chuckles and more than a few shares. It could really matter.
BUILDING A ROBUST ONLINE FOLLOWING is more art than science. Though the proper calibration can be painfully elusive, Pritzker and his fans seem to have found one that is working. The Illinois governor is making clear preparations for a potential 2028 presidential bid and these online groups are ready to ride with him.
“I initially created it thinking he’s a pretty genial guy, so it’s absurd to imagine him as Genghis Khan,” Venturella told The Bulwark. “But now, three years later, people are calling him, ‘the Great Khan of Illinois,’ or saying ‘the horse Lord will one day take the Eagle Throne.’ And that’s without me intervening at all. I'll see these posts completely organically.”
“Why has this meme been successful? I think it’s because, despite his genial exterior, he has an instinct for the political jugular and a real understanding of political strategy,” Venturella added. “That is why at least the Nomadic Warriors thing has stuck; it gets to a truth of him.”
Pritzker is not the only potential 2028 Democratic candidate with online stan accounts. Just type in “Pete Buttigieg” to your social media platform of choice and you can find a few.
But Democratic officials, including Pritzker himself, have noticed the cohort of Pritzker posters—some of whom have become friends in real life and trade ideas in group chats. Though the governor’s office is not affiliated with the accounts, Venturella did say he received an unexpected phone call from Pritzker a few months after he created the account. He wouldn’t go into the details, but he told The Bulwark that Pritzker thanked him for the laughs.
The success of these accounts speaks to the outsized role that online influencers and social media accounts play in shaping how people perceive and think about politics and politicians. And if Democrats can agree on any lessons learned from 2024, it’s that whoever emerges as the party’s next leader must be someone who has fluency in the conversation happening online—or at least the capacity to navigate it.
“I think [the accounts] are a sign of the grassroots enthusiasm that exists. Pritzker has them. I’ve seen them for Mayor Pete. I’ve seen them for Stephen A. Smith,” said Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, adding that the accounts become really important closer to elections to help amplify messages or media appearances in remote corners of the internet.
One reason that nurturing an online following matters so much in politics is because of the demands that come with running for office. Candidates can only be in so many places. And they can only woo so many voters. Studies routinely show that one of the best ways to win over those voters is by using trusted surrogates and influencers. But that can be effective only if done in a way that is authentic. Democrats learned that lesson the hard way.
NELLIS HAS A THEORY ABOUT why Pritzker’s online following matters. And it has a lot to do with how he interpreted what happened during the 2024 cycle.
“People have this conversation about how Kamala didn’t go on Joe Rogan and because of that she didn’t get the 100 million views that Trump got on his,” he said, referring to Trump’s appearance on the mega-popular podcast. “But there’s a whole economy under that . . . that is reflective of the way the internet works today. When Joe Rogan does a show, there’s 1,000 other different [social media accounts] that are then clipping it and sending it out. The actual reach of the show, effectively, is much greater than it seems. If there’s an economy under your existing economy, to just think about it like that, it means that there’s some energy there.”
Part of what makes the accounts work is the subtle ways in which Pritzker engages with them, usually by offering small nods to the online content and dropping Easter eggs here and there for Nomadic Warriors to notice.
In his 2022 victory speech after winning a second term as governor, Pritzker, with a cheeky smile on his face, told the crowd that: “facing this moment requires that every happy warrior find a little bit of a nomadic warrior in them as well.” Venturella said he felt like a photo that Pritzker posted last year of himself holding a hawk in a “noble fashion” was catnip meant specifically for him.
Pritzker doesn’t overdo it, though, perhaps recognizing that embracing memes too hard will effectively kill them.
Some Democrats, for example, lamented that the Biden White House ruined the magic of the “Dark Brandon” meme when his campaign started sharing their own version of it and the president referenced it directly in public.
“It’s sort of like if the school principal acquires an affectionate nickname but then calls himself the nickname,” said Venturella. “It’s not cool anymore.”
As further evidence that they have no desire to kill the fun, Pritzker declined to comment for this piece.
The Pritzker stan accounts are certainly ready for the possibility that the governor may soon announce a White House run. After all, they gained traction last summer after Biden dropped out of the race and Kamala Harris was searching for a running mate. Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker, Socialists for Pritzker, and a few other groups came together to register www.coconutbigboy.com, a now-defunct website that at the time made the case for putting a “big boy in the White House” with Harris. Pritzker’s size is a recurring theme in the memes, though the account creators say it’s part of his charm and what makes the billionaire hotel magnate more relatable.
Harris, who herself was meme-ified for her viral “coconut tree” quote, didn’t end up picking the coconut big boy as her running mate. But it proved to be an early test run for what the online Pritzker stan accounts could pull together if he decides to pursue the presidential nomination in 2028.
“What you cannot say is that the internet isn’t real life,” said Gabe, the creator of Socialists for Pritzker, who would speak on condition that we not use his surname. “Twitter is worn out, but the internet now is where a lot of people are thinking about politics.”
🫏 Donkey Business:
— When President Joe Biden announced that he would appear on ABC’s The View, I heard from some of his former staffers and campaign aides who felt like the former president should probably just enjoy his time as a private citizen (Rehoboth Beach is lovely this time of year!). Even those who continue to publicly defend the former president privately acknowledge that the party is still dealing with some Biden scar tissue. All of which made Biden’s decision to give an interview to the BBC (which aired today, before The View) even more head-scratching.
Presumably Biden went to the BBC to talk about the war in Ukraine and other important foreign policy issues that he deeply cares about. But the harsh reality is that as long as Biden and his top aides keep saying they have no regrets about running for re-election, the questions about whether he bears some responsibility for Donald Trump’s win won’t go away.
“I don’t think it would’ve mattered,” Biden said, when asked if he should have dropped out sooner. Biden also said his administration was “so successful” that “it was hard to say, ‘Now I’m going to stop.’”
Biden said that he meant his initial promise that his would be a “transition government” and that he would hand things off to a new generation. “But things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away,” he said. Asked if he had any regrets, he replied: “No, I think it was the right decision.”
That’s a pretty self-serving response given that the Democratic party ultimately lost the election. How could an official from the losing party not have regrets? Maybe he will come up with a better response on The View tomorrow.
— On a more uplifting note, North Carolina Democrats got some long-anticipated good news today. Republican Jefferson Griffin finally conceded in the state’s supreme court race, acknowledging that the Democratic candidate, Allison Riggs, was the victor. That puts an end to Griffin’s six-month-long legal challenges of the election results, which drew criticism from democracy watchdog groups and Democrats over the concerning precedent he was setting.
— There’s been a flurry of updates on the 2026 and 2028 primary front since the last edition of this newsletter. Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi announced he was running for U.S. Senate, setting up the race to replace Sen. Dick Durbin to be one of the more competitive Democratic primaries this cycle. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced he would not challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff in his Senate re-election, disappointing many Republicans who had hoped to recruit him (and making it a bit more possible that Ossoff could face Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene).
And the 2028 presidential shadow primary continues, with Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego scheduled to host a May 10 town hall in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Plus, my friend Elena Schneider at Politico has a great story today about how Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is also making moves to run in 2028.
My open tabs:
— How the Most Remote Community in America Gets Its Mail
— Inside the life of a 24/7 streamer: ‘What more do you want?’
— Cardinals are watching ‘Conclave’ the movie for guidance on the actual conclave
I feel like talking about Biden makes it seem like it's a uniquely Biden problem. It really isn't. It's something his entire generation has utterly refused to do, which is accept their mortality and step aside.
RBG died in office despite everyone knowing that she should have stepped down long before. Pelosi and Schumer have held their gavels so long that an entire political generation went into the private sector during the Obama years. But the most obvious to me was the Dianne Feinstein stuff.
For those unaware, she was basically brain dead for a long time, unable to do her job, unable to vote or get around on her own, and instead of stepping down and having a replacement put in place, questions about her age and health were treated as scandalous. All the while, she was moved around like it was weekend at bernies.
It was really gross! But it's also par for the course for the boomer generation of politicians. They utterly refuse to accept their age and mortality, and their handlers keep them around far too long.
But Biden trying to go out 'one more time' and 'set the record straight' is the same thing that Trump does, and it's like a punch drunk boxer who thinks he still has it and going out there and losing over and over.
It's sad. it's pathetic. Politics aside, his time is over, and he refuses to let anyone else have the last word, even though other people will always have the last word after he dies. Someone else always gets the last word.
Maybe it wouldn't have mattered, maybe that's true. But it's also irrelevant. The contest is over. He has no business in politics, and we shouldn't act like his words have any relevance. I felt the same about Hillary Clinton after she lost in 2016. Whatever the merits, it's over. Move on. We never need to hear from you again, because you are no longer relevant to the conversation moving forward.
And of all the things that the boomer generation of politicians hates to accept, it's that they are no longer relevant culturally or politically. Voters might hold sway, yes. But the politicians need to accept that they're in the twilight of their lives, and government is not a jobs program for old people.
That’s our boy!
Seriously, we are big fans in Chicago.