Bruce Rauner

In 2018, Rauner called for the death penalty to be imposed on convicted cop killers.

In July 2017, Rauner vetoed a budget that increased the state income tax from 3.75% to 4.95% and the corporate tax from 5.25% to 7%, an increase of $5 billion in additional tax revenue. However, the Illinois legislature, with the help of several Republicans, overrode his veto. Following this action, considered a political defeat for Rauner, he made major changes to his staff; among others, he fired his chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, and spokesperson, and replaced them with high-ranking officials from the Illinois Policy Institute along with a former spokesperson for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. These moves were seen by the media as a shift to the right. In August 2017, Rauner fired several of those new officials after they issued a controversial statement related to race.

Rauner had made a priority to fully funded education for the first time in years, increasing K-12 education funding by nearly $1 billion, and increasing early childhood education funding to historic levels. In 2017, Rauner signed Senate Bill 1947, which moved Illinois to an "evidence-based model" of education funding, taking into account each district's individual needs, as well as its local revenue sources, when appropriating state aid – prioritizing districts that are furthest from being fully funded. The new law created a scholarship plan that earmarked up to $75 million for scholarship tax credits. Lawmakers said those credits would go to low- and middle-income parents, impacting roughly 6,000 private school students whose families make less than $73,000 per year. The new law created the first revision in two decades of the way general state-aid dollars to schools were distributed, establishing a multifaceted procedure for determining need and setting a goal for "adequacy" of funding in each of the state's 852 school districts. The bill received praise from the Chicago Tribune, Daily Herald, and Chicago Sun-Times, along with numerous civic organizations.

As a candidate in 2014, Rauner stated that he opposed the Illinois law that restricted abortion coverage under Medicaid and the state employee health plan. Nevertheless, in April 2017, Rauner pledged to veto an abortion rights bill that would remove those restrictions, in addition to removing a clause that would make abortions illegal if Roe v. Wade were overturned. In the end, Rauner signed the bill into law on September 28, 2017, which earned him harsh criticism from conservative Republicans.

On August 28, 2017, Rauner signed a bill into law that prohibited state and local police from arresting anyone solely due to their immigration status or due to federal detainers. Some Republicans criticized Rauner for his action, saying that the bill made Illinois a sanctuary state. On November 15, 2017, the United States Department of Justice announced that a preliminary conclusion had been reached that Illinois was now a sanctuary jurisdiction in violation of 8 U.S.C. 1373 and issued a warning to state authorities on the issue. subsequently, as of June 10, 2018, there is still no evidence that Illinois responded stating that it was in compliance with the law. The deadline to do so was December 8, 2017.

On June 20, 2016, Rauner confirmed that he would run for a second term; he formally announced his re-election campaign on October 23, 2017. In the Republican primary, Rauner faced State Representative Jeanne Ives, who ran against him from the political right. Rauner was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, The Daily Herald, and the Chicago Sun-Times, and by 37 elected officials from DuPage County, part of which was represented by Ives. On March 20, 2018, Rauner won the Republican primary, with 51.4% of the vote; Ives received 48.6% of the vote. In the November general election, Rauner lost to Democratic nominee J. B. Pritzker; Pritzker received 54% of the vote while Rauner received 39%. It was the most lopsided margin in an Illinois gubernatorial race since Jim Edgar's bid for a second term in 1994.

On June 30, 2016, just before the beginning of the next fiscal year, Rauner signed a temporary bipartisan stopgap budget that would allow public schools to continue operating for an additional year and for necessary state services to continue for 6 months. However, the stopgap budget covered only 65% of social services agencies' normally allocated funds and provided $900,000 less for colleges and universities than FY15, while attempting to cover eighteen months' worth of expenses, all while continuing the uncertainty that Illinois nonprofits faced during FY16.

On July 29, 2016, Rauner signed S.B. 1564 into law, which required doctors and pregnancy centers that refuse to perform abortions for religious or moral reasons to refer patients to places where they could have an abortion. The bill was passed on partisan lines, with no Republican legislators voting for the bill. Rauner's decision to sign the bill into law angered conservative groups. The same day, Rauner also signed a bill that extended insurance coverage for nearly all contraceptives. On August 5, Rauner was sued by a crisis pregnancy center, a Rockford, Illinois-based medical center, and a Downers Grove physician, claiming that SB 1564 was unconstitutional. On December 20, 2016, a Winnebago County Circuit Judge issued a preliminary injunction, which temporarily prohibited the State of Illinois from enforcing the law after it went into effect on January 1, 2017.

On August 12, 2016, Rauner vetoed a bill that would have automatically registered as a voter anyone in Illinois who sought a new or updated drivers license as well as other services, unless they chose to opt out. Rauner said that he supported automatic voter registration, but that he vetoed the bill because he was worried that "the bill would inadvertently open the door to voter fraud and run afoul of federal election law". On August 28, 2017, Rauner signed a revised version of the automatic voter registration bill.

In 2015, Rauner reported earning over $180 million.

Rauner was sworn in as Governor of Illinois on January 12, 2015. In his first executive order, he halted state hiring as well as discretionary spending and called for state agencies to sell surplus property.

On February 9, 2015, Rauner signed an executive order blocking so called "fair share" union fees from state employee paychecks. The same day, Rauner hired a legal team headed by former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb and his law firm Winston & Strawn to file a declaratory judgment action in Federal Court to affirm his action. In February 2015, Rauner proposed $4.1 billion in budget cuts affecting higher education, Medicaid, state employee pensions, public transit, and local government support. In April, Rauner also suspended funding for programs addressing domestic violence, homeless youth, autism, and immigrant integration. Critics called these moves "morally reprehensible" and harmful to the state economy.

On June 25, 2015, Rauner vetoed the Illinois state budget passed by the legislature, which would have created a deficit of nearly $4 billion but which covered what Illinois Democratic lawmakers called "vital services". He stated that he would not sign a budget until the Democratic state legislature passed his "Turnaround Agenda" to reduce trade union power and freeze property taxes. With no state budget, social service agencies cut back on services, state universities laid off staff, public transit service ceased in Monroe and Randolph Counties, and Child Care Assistance eligibility was cut by 90%.

Rauner strongly opposed Governor Pat Quinn's proposal to make the 2011 temporary income tax increase permanent, instead calling for the Illinois' income tax rate to gradually be rolled back to 3 percent. On January 1, 2015, the income tax increase automatically decreased, with the personal income tax rate falling from 5% to 3.75% and the corporate tax rate from 7% to 5.25%.

Also during his campaign, Rauner declined to take a position on the controversial Illiana Expressway and Peotone Airport projects advanced by Quinn. After taking office in 2015, he suspended the Illiana project, pending a cost-benefit review.

In February 2015, Rauner proposed raising highway funding and slashing transit funding, which he saw as inefficient spending.

Prior to his 2014 run for Illinois governor, Rauner served as an advisor to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Rauner won the March 18, 2014 Republican primary with 328,934 votes (40.13%), defeating State Senator Kirk Dillard, who received 305,120 votes (37.22%), State Senator Bill Brady (123,708 votes, 15.09%) and Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford's (61,848 votes, 7.55%).

On October 22, 2014, Dave McKinney, a Chicago Sun-Times political reporter and bureau chief, resigned from the paper, citing pressure brought to bear on him by Sun-Times management with regard to his coverage of Rauner. McKinney had completed an investigative news story about a lawsuit filed by Christine Kirk, the CEO of LeapSource, a firm at which Rauner served as director. The piece, written by three reporters and approved by the newspaper's editors, described Rauner using "hardball tactics" to threaten Kirk and her family. According to McKinney's attorney, the Rauner campaign requested the story include that McKinney had a conflict of interest due to his marriage to Ann Liston, a Democratic media consultant; the campaign eventually published details about the Liston's LLC sharing office space with a legally separate, long-term Democratic strategist firm, of which Liston was part-owner. The LLC was employed by a pro-Quinn PAC. McKinney says any notion of conflict of interest was untrue, a position backed up publicly by Sun-Times management. Rauner is a former investor of the Sun-Times and received the newspaper's backing, marking the first time the media organization endorsed any candidate after imposing a moratorium on political endorsements three years earlier.

On November 4, 2014, Rauner was elected Governor of Illinois; Pat Quinn conceded defeat the next day. Rauner received 50.27% of the vote, while Quinn won 46.35%. Rauner carried every county in the state except for Cook, home to Chicago.

In 2014, Rauner's election campaign was helped financially by Kenneth C. Griffin, CEO of Citadel, a successful global investment firm, who made a rare and impassioned plea to the sold-out audience at the Economic Club of Chicago (ECC) in May 2013 to replace the Democrats at all levels of governance. He supported Rauner's campaign promises to "cut spending and overhaul the state's pension system, impose term limits, and weaken public employee unions". Griffin called for a show of financial support to Rauner that met with an increase in campaign donations representing tens of millions of dollars, or half the $65 million spent on Rauner's 2014 election campaign. Of this half, such money originated from Rauner himself along with "nine other individuals, families, or companies they control".

In July 2014, Rauner called for expanding Illinois' sales tax to dozens of services, such as legal services, accounting services, and computer programming, which were not subject to the sales tax in Illinois. Rauner estimated the expanded sales tax would bring in an additional $600 million a year. Rauner's services tax proposal was harshly criticized by Quinn, who said it would fall hardest on low income people.

Rauner strongly favored term limits, and pledged to limit himself to no more than eight years as governor. He organized and funded a push to put a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on Illinois legislators on the November 2014 ballot, gathering 591,092 signatures. However, the term limits amendment was struck down in court as unconstitutional.

During his 2014 campaign, Rauner called for "billions" of dollars per year in public spending on infrastructure, but declined to detail how he would pay for the spending.

Rauner has a record of supporting abortion rights. The Rauner family has donated "thousands of dollars" to Planned Parenthood, and prior to his 2014 campaign, the Rauner Family Foundation donated $510,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union's Roger Baldwin Foundation.

Rauner supported same-sex marriage. As a gubernatorial candidate in 2014, he said that he had no comment on same-sex marriage but would not change the law legalizing gay marriages. In 2015, Rauner signed legislation banning the use of conversion therapy on minors. He also signed a bill making it easier for transgender people to change their birth certificates. He also marched in Aurora and Chicago LGBT pride parades. In 2018, Rauner officiated the wedding of a same-sex couple.

In 2013, Rauner opened an office for a self-financed venture firm, R8 Capital Partners. The firm planned to invest up to $15 million in smaller Illinois companies.

Rauner served as Chairman of Choose Chicago, the not-for-profit that is the city's convention and tourism bureau, resigning in May 2013, and as Chairman of the Chicago Public Education Fund. Rauner has also served as the Chairman of the Education Committee of the Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago.

In March 2013, Rauner formed an exploratory committee to look at a run for Governor of Illinois as a Republican. Rauner said that his top priorities included streamlining government, improving education, and improving the state's business climate. He supported term limits and said he would serve no more than eight years (two terms) as governor. On June 5, 2013, Rauner officially announced his candidacy for governor, telling Chicago magazine's Carol Felsenthal that his platform would include overhauling tax policy and freezing property taxes.

In October 2013, Rauner announced that his running mate would be Wheaton City Councilwoman Evelyn Sanguinetti.

Rauner's position on the minimum wage changed significantly during his campaign. At a candidate forum on December 11, 2013, Rauner stated that he would favor reducing Illinois's minimum wage from $8.25 to the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The Chicago Sun-Times also uncovered video of Rauner at a campaign event in September 2013, where he said that he was "adamantly, adamantly against raising the minimum wage", and audio of an interview with Rauner from January 10, 2014, when he said: "I have said, on a number of occasions, that we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage as part of increasing Illinois' competitiveness."

As of 2013, Rauner served on the board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Also during the election, the media reported on a controversy regarding Rauner's daughter being admitted to Walter Payton Prep school in Chicago in 2008 through the "principal picks" process. The family maintains several residences, including one in downtown Chicago that enabled her to apply to the Chicago-based school. Although she had top grades, she had missed several days of school and therefore did not qualify through the regular admissions process. It was later revealed that Rauner had sought information on this process from his personal friend Arne Duncan, then CEO of Chicago Public Schools. Rauner has said he had no recollection of speaking with Duncan directly. According to another source, she was not a "principal pick", but was let in following the phone call between Bruce Rauner and Arne Duncan. The Rauners donated $250,000 to the school during the subsequent school year; Rauner has a long history of contributing to Chicago Public Schools.

Rauner was awarded the 2008 Distinguished Philanthropist award by the Chicago Association of Fundraising Professionals. In 2003, Rauner received the Daley Medal from the Illinois Venture Capital Association for extraordinary support to the Illinois economy and was given the Association for Corporate Growth's Lifetime Achievement Award. Rauner and his wife were nominated for the Golden Apple Foundation's 2011 Community Service Award.

Rauner was the chairman of private equity firm GTCR, where he had worked for more than 30 years, starting in 1981 after his graduation from Harvard through his retirement in October 2012. A number of state pension funds, including those of Illinois, have invested in GTCR.

Before being elected governor, Rauner resided in Winnetka, Illinois, with his wife, Diana Mendley Rauner, and family; they have three children. He also has three children from his first marriage, to Elizabeth Konker Wessel, whom he married in 1980, separated from in 1990, and was legally divorced from in 1993.

Bruce Vincent Rauner (/ˈ r aʊ n ər / ; born February 18, 1956) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois, from 2015 to 2019. Prior to his election, he was the chairman of R8 Capital Partners and chairman of the private equity firm GTCR, based in Chicago. The Republican nominee in the 2014 Illinois gubernatorial election, he defeated Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn by 50.3% to 46.4%. In 2018, after narrowly surviving a challenge in the Republican primary from State Representative Jeanne Ives, Rauner lost the General election to Democratic challenger J. B. Pritzker in a landslide.

Bruce Rauner was born in Chicago and grew up in Deerfield, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles north of Chicago. His mother, Ann (née Erickson) Rauner (1931–2011), was a nurse, and his father, Vincent Rauner (1927–1997), was a lawyer and senior vice president for Motorola. He has three siblings, Christopher, Mark, and Paula, and is of half Swedish and half German descent. After his parents divorced and his father remarried to the former Carol Kopay in 1981. Through his father's second marriage, he has a stepsister, Larisa Olson. His first job was as a paperboy.