Editor’s Note: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker along with Texas Democrats are holding a press conference Tuesday morning amid the redistricting controversy. The update will play in the video above.
Democratic lawmakers from Texas fleeing to Illinois earlier this week to try to prevent the Republican-led Legislature from redrawing the state’s congressional districts marked the latest episode in a long national history of gerrymandering.
Illinois Republican Chair Kathy Salvi lashed out at Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is helping the Texans with logistics in the state.
“He gerrymandered Illinois’s maps to hell and back,” she said.
In recent years, gerrymandering has drawn intense scrutiny for courts, with the Supreme Court ruling on cases involving maps that critics claimed discriminated based on racial data. Other cases revolved around political representation, but the Supreme Court said federal courts did not have jurisdiction to rule in latter cases.
The gerrymandering debate has been part of Illinois politics for decades, but kicked into high gear after a newly drawn map in 2022 allowed Democrats to take 14 of the state’s 17 Congressional seats.
But what exactly is gerrymandering, and why are Texas lawmakers in Illinois, and what happens next? Here’s what to know.
What does gerrymandering mean?
The word “gerrymander” was coined in America more than 200 years ago as an unflattering means of describing political manipulation in legislative map-making.
The term dates to 1812, when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill redrawing state Senate districts to benefit the Democratic-Republican Party. Some thought an oddly shaped district looked like a salamander. A newspaper illustration dubbed it “The Gerry-mander” — a term that later came to describe any district drawn for political advantage.
The word has stood the test of time, in part, because American politics has remained fiercely competitive.
In many states, like Texas, the state legislature is responsible for drawing congressional districts, subject to the approval or veto of the governor. District maps must be redrawn every 10 years, after each census, to balance the population in districts.
But in some states, nothing prevents legislatures from conducting redistricting more often.
In an effort to limit gerrymandering, some states have entrusted redistricting to special commissions composed of citizens or bipartisan panels of politicians. Democratic officials in some states with commissions are now talking of trying to sidestep them to counter Republican redistricting in Texas.
How does a gerrymander work and is it legal?
If a political party controls both the legislature and governor’s office — or has such a large legislative majority that it can override vetoes — it can effectively draw districts to its advantage. It’s a commonly used tactic in states like Illinois and Texas that allow their legislatures to draw maps, rather than nonpartisan committees that are used in states like Michigan and Arizona.
Another common method is for the majority party to dilute the power of an opposing party’s voters by spreading them among multiple districts.
The Supreme Court, in a 2019 case originating from North Carolina, ruled that federal courts have no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “The Constitution supplies no objective measure for assessing whether a districting map treats a political party fairly.”
Why are Texas Democrats in Illinois?
In response to the newly drawn maps in Texas, a group of Democrats from the state legislature traveled to Illinois and New York to deny Republicans a quorum and block a vote.
Under Texas law, two-thirds of lawmakers must be present in order to hold a vote, and Democrats crossing state lines prevents that vote from happening.
Pritzker welcomed the Democrats into the state during an event in DuPage County, saying that Illinois could join other states in redrawing its own maps to counter actions in Texas and other locations.
“They are attempting to cheat,” Pritzker said of Texas Republicans. “All bets are when the cult leader and would-be dictator tells Texas to midstream change the game when they know they’re going to lose in 2026. All bets are off. Everything’s got to be on the table.”
Texas Gov. Abbott has threatened to arrest the Texas lawmakers who traveled to Chicago. However, such civil arrest warrants cannot be enforced outside of Texas, and that lawmakers involved would not face civil or criminal charges from any such arrests.
At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, some of the Democrats from Texas, along with Pritzker and DNC Chair Ken Martin will hold a press conference about the issue. The press conference will stream in the video player above once it begins.
Is Illinois’ legislative map gerrymandered?
Yes.
In fact, Princeton’s Gerrymandering Project gave Illinois’ Congressional maps an “F” grade in 2021. The new maps led to the state having 14 Democratic representatives and three Republican representatives, and state legislative maps have allowed Democrats to put together potentially veto-proof majorities.
Texas’ 2021 maps also received an “F” from the project, as have maps in Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, and Nevada, all of which are considered “battleground” states in presidential elections.
States like Arizona, which have nonpartisan panels to determine maps, were given an A.
Pritzker defended Illinois’ maps when asked about them on Sunday.
“You’re talking about the outcome,” he said, according to NBC News. “The fact that we are very good in Illinois about delivering for the people of Illinois and then people react to that and vote for our candidate winning is very different than cheating mid-decade by rewriting the rule because their cult leader told them to do it.”
“For those of us in Illinois, we find this curious since we are equally gerrymandered to what Texas is trying to do,” said Dick Simpson, a retired political science professor and former Chicago Alderman.
Simpson says Democrats here have controlled the legislature and have manipulated the districts after every census to give themselves a partisan advantage. He points to the last congressional district map, drawn after the 2020 Census.
“There are 17 members of the house of representatives from Illinois; 14 of those are Democrats and three are Republicans,” he said.
Given the number of votes cast for each party’s ballot, Simpson argues that it would be hard to fathom the split coming down that way were it not for gerrymandering.
Illinois has also served as a sanctuary for legislators trying to hold off votes in their own states in the past. In 2011, after being surprised by a quick vote passing a controversial budget by Wisconsin’s Republican governor in the state house, Senate Democrats fled to Illinois to hold up a vote in that chamber.
Why does this matter right now?
As of now, Republicans hold 220 seats in the House, giving them an extremely slim majority in the 435-seat chamber.
The Texas effort is one of several occurring in states seeking to bolster Republican majorities, a stance pushed by the Trump administration as he looks to avoid a repeat of 2018, when Republicans lost control of the House and caused his agenda to hit severe roadblocks.
Typically, House maps are only redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census takes place, but Trump’s insistence on new maps being drawn now represents a dramatic departure from that practice, with Republicans seeking to boost their numbers through gerrymandering maps.
Illinois congressional district map
On Nov. 23, 2021, Illinois Gov. Pritzker signed new congressional districts into law. Here’s what the most recently drawn maps look like: