* Some context from Capitol News Illinois’ Ben Szalinski…

The Texas legislature is meeting in special session this week with 18 items on their agenda, including redrawing the state’s 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’ congressional delegation and insulating his party against any seats they might lose elsewhere in the country.

[Governor JB Pritzker] blasted the move at an unrelated event in Chicago on Tuesday.

“I think we ought to play by the rules – everybody – and I think we ought to have an election in 2026,” Pritzker told reporters. “We’ll see who comes out ahead in the Congress. But I think cheating the way the president wants to is improper.” […]

Pritzker didn’t rule out the thought of Illinois Democrats redrawing congressional districts to add more Democrat-leaning districts in response to Texas.

“We’re 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,” Pritzker said.

The process, however, would have to go through Illinois’ legislature.

“That’s not something we’re pursuing,” a spokesperson for Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said.

* Press release…

Today, Governor JB Pritzker will hold a roundtable and media availability with Texas state legislators about the Republican attacks to rig elections and the Republican cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and more.

WHAT: Governor JB Pritzker to hold roundtable with Texas state legislators

WHEN: 1:00 PM CT, Friday, July 25

WHERE: NEIU Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies (CCICS), 700 E Oakwood Blvd, Chicago, IL 60653

WHO:
Governor JB Pritzker
Minority Leader Rep. Gene Wu
Rep. Linda Garcia
Rep. Ana Hernandez
Rep. Donna Howard
Rep. Cristina Morales
Rep. Richard Raymond
Rep. Toni Rose
Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons

Thoughts?

…Adding… Leader McCombie…

In response to Governor JB Pritzker’s media roundtable event with Texas lawmakers to again double down on his mid-term redistricting comments, Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie issued the following statement:

“Today, Democrats from Texas are in Chicago for a roundtable with JB Pritzker to complain about “Republican gerrymandering”—yet they’re sitting with the guy who signed one of the most extreme gerrymandered maps in the country. A map so bad, it was challenged by the NAACP and MALDEF and ranked worst in America. Apparently, they don’t think gerrymandering is wrong, they just want to be as good at it as Illinois’ own Governor.

“While they’re virtue-signaling about healthcare and food assistance, let’s be clear on the facts:

Governor JB Pritzker refused to verify citizenship for SNAP benefits, which pulls resources away from Illinois families in need.

Governor JB Pritzker spent billions on Medicaid for illegal immigrants, while legal residents are paying for them and seeing increases in their own bills.

“This roundtable isn’t about justice—it’s about political theater.”