Pritzker’s ‘Defender of Democracy’ Act in Texas Redistricting Fight May Backfire
“Just because a map ends up with one party having more seats than another, doesn’t mean it was gerrymandered.”
Though Democrats can be pretty brazen sometimes with some of the wildly hypocritical claims they make, one can sort of understand why they feel like they can do it, because by and large, the mainstream media aren’t going to call them out on it.
Further, even when they do manage to get around to covering it, it’s usually a “Republicans pounce and seize” type of story.
However, in the case of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), his positioning himself as a staunch defender of democracy amid the Texas redistricting battle may be backfiring in part, thanks to some of the left’s media allies.
Illinois is one of three Democrat-run states that the Texas Democrats ran to after fleeing the Lone Star state in the aftermath of their Republican colleagues introducing a new map during a special session that, if enacted, potentially could net the GOP four or five more seats in the 2026 midterms.
In addition to the heavily gerrymandered Illinois, some of them went to another bastion of Democrat gerrymandering: New York, while others went to the blue state of Massachusetts, which has no Republican representation in the House of Representatives at all (nor the Senate, just for the record).
Back to Pritzker, he’s rumored to be mulling a possible 2028 presidential run. Naturally, standing shoulder to shoulder with Texas Democrats and presenting himself as a key Resistance figure is elevating his national profile.
But it’s also raising questions about Illinois’ own wildly gerrymandered maps, something even leftist late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert mocked during a recent “interview” with Pritzker.
Stephen Colbert shows Illinois Dem Gov. JB Pritzker how gerrymandered his state is amid Texas controversy https://t.co/kyhWQBC2ey pic.twitter.com/TpvZE1ra7D
— New York Post (@nypost) August 6, 2025
Here’s a clip shared by Rep. Mary Miller, one of only three Republican House members from Illinois:
JB Pritzker got called out for his extreme gerrymandered map on national TV and laughed it off like a joke.
To him, cheating the system isn’t shameful, it’s the strategy. Rigged maps are how Illinois Democrats cling to power. pic.twitter.com/QaqMAY9XsP
— Mary Miller (@Miller_Congress) August 7, 2025
Pritzker’s response was to make jokes about how they “handed it over to a kindergarten class and let them decide” where the districts would be. He also went along with Colbert’s banter about how that kindergarten class was Illinois’ “independent commission.”
Still, it brought the Illinois maps some national attention and invited further scrutiny of the calculated role the state has played for decades in attempting to limit Republican representation in Congress.
Similarly, at a state fair event earlier this week, Pritzker was asked by a reporter about the gerrymandered districts. Pritzker’s defense was that a couple of them had been “competitive,” which, in his view, was supposedly proof they weren’t gerrymandered:
Pritzker claims he's “absolutely in favor" of eliminating partisan gerrymandering — then says IL’s maps are fairly drawn:
“Just because a map ends up with one party having more seats than another, doesn’t mean it was gerrymandered.”
The gaslighting is off the freakin charts. pic.twitter.com/7mpWAnyfkU
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 7, 2025
It’s nonsense, because even a severely gerrymandered district can be ripe for competitiveness and even an upset if the conditions are right. For instance, Republicans here in North Carolina finally wrested control of the General Assembly from deeply corrupt Democrats in 2010, under Democrat-drawn gerrymandered maps, after over 100 years of being the minority party.
On the issue of the Illinois maps, something Pritzker doesn’t bring up when questioned about them is the fact that the Princeton Gerrymander Project’s report card for Illinois on the Congressional maps that were enacted in 2021 earned the state an “F” across the board on “partisan fairness,” “competitiveness,” and “geographic features”:
You are one to speak, JB.
IL’s so gerrymandered, Princeton gave it an F pic.twitter.com/DAdg123O25— Sammy D’Souza (@sammydsouza) August 4, 2025
There was also this:
In 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker vowed to veto any unfair legislative map.
Instead, he signed one of the most egregiously gerrymandered maps in the nation.
The outrage over Texas today? Completely performative. pic.twitter.com/RJ6pVxP4V9
— Christian Collins (@CollinsforTX) August 6, 2025
Absolutely, positively 100 percent correct.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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Comments
do alll these other states have “standing” in this matter?? ( as it goes to court(s)
I mean texas and plenty of other states in 2020 pres elections challenged PA illegally changing voting rules and the scotus told them they didnt want to hear about it
The only way this ever ends up in a federal court would be if some Texas voter or potential candidate alleged that the map TX comes up with is racially motivated, and thus violates the Voting Rights Act. If so, no other state would have standing. Nothing Texas does with its allocation of seats can possibly affect anyone outside that state, so no one outside the state has standing. Except the DOJ, because the VRA says so; but this DOJ is obviously not going to have an issue with it.
Supremes have already placed a case back on docket. The Louisiana challenge to the VR Act. If the Supremes axe that portion of the VR it basically kills it. It has to do with racial apportionment to get a specific outcome.
The Voting Rights Act would not be killed, on the contrary it’d come out stronger than ever, because it would no longer have this weird little twist where racially motivated gerrymanders are illegal most of the time, but mandatory some of the time, and there’s no real way to know which is which. If the LA case goes the way we would like, racially motivated gerrymanders would become always illegal.
Millhouse, I do not quite follow your lack of outside state standing point. If TX gerrymanders more House seats for Republications, the Democrat representation/influence/votes of all other states is diluted.
True — but it isn’t against the law. What flavor of reps a state sends to Congress is the business of that state alone, not any other state.
I dont know as calling humans 3/5 a person was accepted at one time..in the legal sense
Destroy, no one was ever called less than 100% of a person. All human beings were full persons, including slaves, minors, aliens, felons, even Indians Not Taxed. They were all persons, and the constitution is clear about that.
In any case, I don’t see what it’s got to do with the topic. Each state has its own allotment of seats, and how it draws its internal map doesn’t affect anyone outside that state, so no one outside the state (other than DOJ) has standing.
“Standing” and “common sense” don’t always go hand-in-hand, unfortunately.
They almost always do. Can you cite an example or two of where they don’t?
The rule for standing is pretty simple. You just have to show how what you’re complaining of is more your business than that of a random person. If it isn’t, if it only affects you the same way it affects everyone, then you’re just being a Karen.
That blockquote should have closed after the first sentence.
Surely, a Governor of Illinois wouldn’t lie? . Hilarious. I’m guessing Porky Pritzker will follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and wind up in jail.
Hey Prikster!
Stay in your lane.
And it’s not so much a question that he’s going to jail after his governorhood, but for what.
It’s not an actual law that Illinois governors have to go to jail. It only seems that way. I believe historically there have been a number who didn’t.
Still, having the law to refer to would be helpful.
Your most hilarious post yet, Milhouse!
Political corruption was one of the main factors in deciding to move out of my home state of Illinois. If you take a look at the CD maps, you’d be forgiven for thinking that not only Crook County but all of the collar counties were solidly D, when nothing could be further from the truth. Growing up in McHenry Co and then living in Kane Co for over 20 years, I can tell you that those counties are far from being overwhelmingly blue.
Gov. FatAss is such a liar. From his toilet controversy to his “covid” hypocrisy to his blatant contempt for “common” people, FatAss easily walks away with the “Worst/Most Corrupt Governor in Illinois History” prize. He deserves to go to prison like so many of his D predecessors.
Defender of Democracy? More like defender of diabetes…seriously dude… lay off the biscuits/gravy, take some walks and lose some weight before presenting yourself as a possible Presidential candidate. It you don’t display basic markers of self discipline why should the Nation trust you?
I honestly think this gerrymandering hoopla will backfire on the d/prog. First they over promised their base to ‘fight/win’ which they can’t do. They’ve already pretty well maxed out the d/prog gerrymandering in the States they control. Anything further attempts are gonna get litigated clogging up any change till after the midterms. Second the broader public is becoming aware of just how Cray Cray the CD are currently drawn in blue States and are becoming aware of hypocritical it is to complain about the GoP finally deciding to do the same.
He and his trans brother who thinks he’s a fat woman
“Just because a map ends up with one party having more seats than another, doesn’t mean it was gerrymandered.”
I’m pretty sure that’s the very definition of “gerrymandering”, sir.
Not at all. Hypothesize that inner cities are 90% D and outer cities are 75% D, where suburbs are 60% R and rural areas are 70% R, and a statewide voter base 52% D, 48% R. Under those circumstances, a political map which solely tries to keep neighborhoods whole is going to naturally elect more Republicans even though the state leans Democratic.
But that does not describe the Illinois map.
Though when you get down to cases like Massachusetts — where Republicans got 36.5% of the presidential vote, and yet zero representation in Congress — you can be pretty sure what the cause was.
That would depend on how the Rs are distributed within the State. It may not even be possible to gerrymander a district in which they’d win a seat, but I’d be interested to see what such a CD would look like!
More than that, suppose a minority party has 45% support, but it’s spread perfectly evenly throughout the state. Any reasonable map is going to give that party zero seats.
Or consider the UK, where in the last election the Lib Dems, with 12.2% of the vote, got 72 seats, while Reform, with 14.3% of the vote, got only 5 seats, the same as the DUP with only 0.6%. The Greens, with 6.4%, got 4 seats, the same as Plaid Cymru with only 0.7%. The explanation is that most of Reform’s and the Greens’ support is spread fairly evenly and only in a few places is it high enough to win a seat, while the Lib Dems and the regional parties have their support concentrated in just a few areas. No gerrymandering, just the way single-member constituencies work, especially with first-past-the-post voting.
Again, this doesn’t describe Illinois.
It’s no secret leftists have attempted for years to run the California playbook in other states to turn them deep blue. IE: flood the zone with illegals for apportionment in congress, and gerrymander the outcomes.
Texas has been under attack for many years from leftists. Trump is directly defecating on the leftist playbook by closing the border, deporting the illegals, and pushing for red gerrymandered states, and leftists are losing their dang minds.
Pass the popcorn, but I’m still waiting for arrests.
In 2024, Republicans won 47% of the Illinois vote for Congress, and 18% of the state’s Congressional seats 3/17). That is a classic example of Gerrymandering.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever asked Illinois Governor Lardbottom-Billionaire-Heir about the 47/18 discrepancy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Illinois
Did you read the post? Colbert did ask him.
But as several of us have pointed out above, a disparity between percentage of votes and percentage of seats does not prove that there’s a gerrymander. In Illinois’s case there is one, but the disparity doesn’t prove it.
From one of the most gerrymandered states.
Pritzker is so fat, you don’t measure his weight on a bathroom scale. You need to use the Richter scale.