Oh, now this is rich — Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker standing shoulder to shoulder with Texas Democrats who literally fled their own state to block GOP redistricting plans, and with a straight face declaring that he doesn’t want to change election maps in Illinois. “We’re fighting for democracy,” he said, as if the hypocrisy wasn’t practically dripping off the podium.
Illinois @GovPritzker: "Here in the state of Illinois, it is possible to redistrict. It's not something that I want to do ... We're fighting for democracy. There are not rules anymore, apparently." pic.twitter.com/fvWnsaW1M2
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 5, 2025
Here’s the problem: Pritzker’s track record tells a very different story. Back in 2018, when he first ran for governor, he was singing a very different tune. He promised — flat out promised — that Illinois needed independent redistricting.
He said we should amend the state constitution to create a nonpartisan commission to draw the maps. He even called for Democrats and Republicans to agree on an independent commission right then. And in January 2021? His own spokesman said Pritzker “has been clear he will veto a partisan map.”
But when the time came to actually do it? Suddenly, the tune changed. By April 2021, with Democrats controlling both chambers of the Illinois legislature, Pritzker abandoned his “ironclad” pledge, saying he trusted those lawmakers to draw a “fair” map — conveniently after it was “too late” to form that independent commission he once championed. The result? A congressional map so slanted it earned an “F” for partisanship from Princeton’s gerrymandering tracker.
Republicans didn’t mince words. Rep. Rodney Davis put it bluntly: “Governor Pritzker lied to people of Illinois, plain and simple.”
Illinois House Assistant Minority Leader Tim Butler piled on, reminding everyone that Pritzker once vowed to veto a partisan map — but now? He’s playing cover for a process designed to lock in Democratic power for another decade. Butler even pointed out that he has a bill ready for an independent commission, but Democrats blocked it.
And yet there was Pritzker in front of the cameras, lamenting partisan redistricting — in Texas — while defending his party’s hyper-partisan maps at home. It’s a masterclass in political doublespeak.
If you’re looking for the perfect case study in “rules for thee, but not for me,” this might be it.