CHICAGO 鈥 Gov. JB Pritzker is leaving the door open to changing Illinois鈥 congressional maps to 鈥渃ounterbalance鈥 an attempt by Texas politicians to add more Republican seats to the U.S. House.
The Texas legislature is meeting in special session this week with 18 items on their agenda, including redrawing the state鈥檚 congressional maps after President Donald Trump urged the state to redraw district boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterm election in hopes of adding five more Republicans to Texas鈥 congressional delegation and insulating his party against any seats they might lose elsewhere in the country.
Pritzker blasted the move at an unrelated event in Chicago on Tuesday.
鈥淚 think we ought to play by the rules聽鈥 everybody聽鈥 and I think we ought to have an election in 2026,鈥 Pritzker told reporters. 鈥淲e鈥檒l see who comes out ahead in the Congress. But I think cheating the way the president wants to is improper.鈥
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Redrawing legislative maps typically happens once a decade after the national census, though sometimes states have been ordered by courts if their legislative maps violated voting rights laws. Texas Republicans also redrew the state鈥檚 congressional maps in the mid-2000s to add more Republican-leaning districts.
Pritzker didn鈥檛 rule out the thought of Illinois Democrats redrawing congressional districts to add more Democrat-leaning districts in response to Texas.
鈥淲e鈥檙e all going to have to band together to try to address that; at least to try to stop them by letting them know that if we were doing what they were doing, in fact we would counterbalance and indeed take control of the Congress,鈥 Pritzker said.
The process, however, would have to go through Illinois鈥 legislature.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not something we鈥檙e pursuing,鈥 a spokesperson for Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said.
Illinois Republicans blast comments
Pritzker鈥檚 comments accusing Texas Republicans of 鈥渃heating鈥 left Illinois Republicans furious. The party pushed through maps in 2021 with only Democratic support in a largely opaque remap process.
Illinois鈥 map divides the state鈥檚 17-member congressional delegation into 14 Democrat-leaning districts and three Republican-leaning districts. The three districts currently held by Republicans are mostly large, meandering rural areas Democrats didn鈥檛 draw into districts they wanted.
Illinois delegate Susan Sweeney dances with a member from the Texas delegation, which was notable for its coordinated hats, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July 2024.
鈥淚t's rich that the Governor now claims to support playing by the rules 鈥 after he enthusiastically signed into law the most gerrymandered maps in the nation,鈥 House Republican Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said in a statement. 鈥淲hen it was convenient, he promised to reject partisan maps in favor of fair representation.鈥
Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, also condemned gerrymander in other states.
鈥淚 disagree with efforts in other states to double down on further partisan gerrymandering, but I can make that statement because I voted against partisan gerrymandering in Illinois and have been dedicated to its elimination for many years,鈥 Spain said in a statement.
Illinois鈥 current congressional map earned an F grade from the independent Princeton Gerrymandering Project, finding the map fails in every category on political fairness and competition and geographic compactness.
Illinois鈥 congressional district map was approved by the General Assembly in
2021.听
The 16th District represented by Rep. Darin LaHood runs from south of Bloomington to Galena and includes areas outside urban populations in Bloomington-Normal, Peoria and Rockford. The 15th District represented by Rep. Mary Miller includes much of Central Illinois but is split in half by a Democrat-leaning district that runs right through the middle of it to include Champaign, Decatur, Springfield and the 最新杏吧原创 suburbs.
The 12th District represented by Rep. Mike Bost includes a large swath of southern Illinois.
Whether Illinois Democrats could expand the map to create 15 Democrat-leaning districts remains to be seen, as even maps drawn for partisan gain must meet legal requirements, including for compactness, as outlined in state and federal voting rights laws.
The map was signed in 2021 by Pritzker after the House Democrats鈥 lead mapmaker, Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, admitted during debate over the maps that 鈥減artisan advantage鈥 was considered.
Candidate Pritzker鈥檚 position
As a candidate for governor in 2018, Pritzker said he opposed gerrymandered maps and supported an independent mapmaking commission.
鈥淚 100% oppose gerrymandering,鈥 Pritzker said in a 2018 social media post two months before he would go on to win the Democratic nomination for governor. 鈥淟egislative districts should adhere to both the Federal and Illinois Voting Rights Acts, and I support redistricting reform that advances fairness and removes politics from the process.鈥
Republicans have filed legislation to create an independent redistricting commission and take the power away from lawmakers, but it has never been considered by the General Assembly under Democrat control.
Republicans have filed multiple lawsuits to try to force an independent commission to redraw the maps, but they have failed early in the court process.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed several higher education-related measures into law on Monday, June 30, 2025. They include a new direct admissions program for qualifying high schoolers and expanded dual credit opportunities for students still in high school. "Higher education should be about growth and the opportunity to build a better life," the governor said. "It should not be about piling on debt and mountains of paperwork."
