Governor JB Pritzker is no stranger to political theater. Still, his latest performance, welcoming Texas Democrats to Illinois as heroes for fleeing a redistricting vote, should earn him an award for brazen hypocrisy.
A group of Texas House Democrats arrived in Illinois last week to avoid a quorum at the Texas State Capitol, blocking a mid-decade congressional redistricting vote they claim is a partisan power grab by Republicans. These lawmakers insist their actions are meant to defend democracy. Pritzker wasted no time rolling out the red carpet, offering public praise and, quite possibly, financial support as the lawmakers settle into suburban hotels and face $500-per-day fines for skipping legislative session days back home.
But the real story here isn’t what’s happening in Texas. It’s what already happened in Illinois.
Pritzker ran for governor in 2018 on a very specific promise that he would veto any gerrymandered maps drawn by politicians. “We should have an independent commission draw the maps,” he said on the campaign trail, echoing the calls of good-government advocates who have long argued that the redistricting process should be removed from the hands of politicians.
And yet, when the time came to act on that promise, Pritzker folded. In 2021, Illinois Democrats rammed through what many consider to be the most aggressively gerrymandered congressional and legislative maps in the country. The new congressional map gives Democrats control of 14 out of 17 congressional seats, despite the fact that Republicans consistently earn 40% to 45% percent of the statewide vote. District lines twist and snake across the state in a blatant attempt to carve up Republican voters and pack them into a few sprawling rural districts.
The Illinois maps are so egregiously partisan that Common Cause, a leading nonpartisan watchdog group, gave the state a failing grade of “F” for its redistricting process in a 2023 national report. According to the group, Illinois ranked dead last in transparency, public participation, and fairness.
Pritzker didn’t veto those maps as promised. He embraced them and signed them into law. Then he had the audacity to defend them, calling them constitutional and fair despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary from independent analysts and watchdog organizations.
So when the governor now calls Texas Republicans “cheaters” for trying to redraw maps mid-decade, it rings hollow. The truth is, Texas Republicans are playing the same game Illinois Democrats played in 2021 with the same goal: partisan advantage. The only difference is that Pritzker seems to have selective outrage depending on which party is holding the pen.
What’s truly offensive here isn’t just the double standard. It’s the smugness with which it’s delivered. Pritzker paints himself as a champion of voting rights and fair representation while presiding over the most gerrymandered maps in America. He accuses others of “changing the game midstream,” when he himself was a willing player in Illinois’ gerrymandering. And now, he offers political sanctuary to out-of-state Democrats as if Illinois were a model of democratic integrity.
Illinois voters deserve honesty. They deserve leaders who keep their promises— not ones who rewrite their principles when it’s politically convenient.
If Governor Pritzker truly believes what he’s now saying about gerrymandering, then he should start by cleaning up his own backyard. That means supporting an independent redistricting commission before 2030.
