Just days after President Joe Biden selected Chicago to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, his administration said Friday that Illinois’ first lady M.K Pritzker has been appointed to serve on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s wife is joining 17 other members on a committee whose honorary chair is first lady Jill Biden.
“The Committee is charged with establishing policies relating to the museum function of the White House, its staterooms, and collections,” the White House said in a statement. “It also works to make recommendations on acquisitions for the permanent collection of the White House and provides advice on changes to principal rooms on the ground floor, state floor, and the historic guest suites on the residence floor of the White House Executive Residence.”
Gov. Pritzker posted his support on Twitter.
“No one better I can think of to be appointed to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House than my wife, MK!” he wrote.
The White House said one of the reasons for her appointment was her work restoring the once crumbling Illinois Governor’s Mansion in Springfield. The restoration process has been documented in a forthcoming book written by M.K. Pritzker that “not only celebrates the updating of the Italianate — Greek Revival Illinois Governor’s Mansion in Springfield but also tells the story of the house’s evolution since 1855,” according to a White House news release.
Gov. Pritzker, billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune, is widely seen as having designs on becoming a resident of the White House as president, speculation fueled by his trips last year to the key election year states of New Hampshire and Florida.
M.K. Pritzker tends to stay out of the limelight, but her husband has long heaped praise on her work on the Springfield mansion.
“My wife really has fallen in love with the house there, and with the history of the Hayes House, and she’s working hard to restore not just the home but also the history so people can see it and experience it,” Pritzker said in 2019.
The Pritzkers have spent six figures of their own money on the renovation.
Other members of the White House committee include Ellen Susman. who was a member of President Obama’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center, and Leslie Greene Bowman, President Emerita of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello.
Gov. Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
hsanders@chicagotribune.com
