Dupage Policy Journal

As Texas House Democrats hunker down at the DuPage County Democratic headquarters in an attempt to block a redistricting vote in Austin, Illinois Republicans, led by local and state officials, are calling out what they say is a stunning display of political hypocrisy.

The Democratic lawmakers fled Texas over the weekend, aiming to deny a quorum in the state House and halt a vote on new GOP-drawn congressional maps expected to give Republicans five more seats in the 2026 midterms. 

On Sunday night, Governor JB Pritzker greeted them in DuPage County and stood alongside them at a press conference, denouncing the redistricting effort as “cheating” directed by former President Donald Trump.

DuPage County GOP Chair Kevin Coyne | Facebook / DuPage County Republicans

But Republican leaders across Illinois pushed back, including Kevin Coyne, Chairman of the DuPage County GOP, who called the move political theater.

“It is regrettable that Governor Pritzker chose DuPage County to host his embarrassing campaign stunt tonight,” Coyne said in a statement provided to the DuPage Policy Journal. “It is difficult to come up with a notion more absurd then the idea that the leader of Illinois' Democratic Party would have the nerve to complain about another State's maps. No State has done more to make a mockery of the map drawing process than has Illinois.”

Coyne took direct aim at the Texas Democrats, saying their presence in DuPage County was unwelcome.

“Texas is a far better run State than is Illinois,” he said. “We urge the Democratic officials who have come here to hide from their elected duties in Texas to return home. Illinois is already cursed with far too many Democratic politicians who don't do their jobs. We don't need to import more.”

Coyne emphasized the stark partisan imbalance in Illinois politics, where Democrats hold a 14-3 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation, a map critics say was drawn to suppress GOP influence.

“If Pritzker wants to take on the issue of Fair Maps he should do it in the State that he actually represents,” he said. “Roughly 45% of Illinois is Republican yet these millions of voters have been largely disenfranchised from having a voice in Springfield due to maps that have been overtly rigged and gamed by the majority Party.”

Coyne’s remarks reflect the 43.8% of Illinois voters who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election, compared to Kamala Harris’s 54.8%, which secured her the state’s 19 electoral votes. Harris’s performance marked the weakest Democratic performance in Illinois since 1992 and highlighted Trump’s growing support, particularly in Chicago and among minority voters

“Texas Democratic legislators walking out to come to the most rigged state in the country at the invitation of a governor who broke his promise to voters not once, but twice, to create the most gerrymandered maps in the nation is the height of hypocrisy,” Senate Minority Leader John Curran, (R-Downers Grove) said in a statement. “Governor Pritzker and his legislative allies have already rigged Illinois with a 14-3 Congressional map that is shameless in its attempt to remove choice from voters.”

Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) accused Pritzker of hypocrisy given his own support for gerrymandered maps in Illinois.

“It’s rich that the governor now claims to support playing by the rules — after he enthusiastically signed into law the most gerrymandered maps in the nation,” McCombie said in late July as Pritzker was making overtures to Texas Democrats. 

At that time, Deputy House Minority Leader Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) argued that Pritzker’s outrage over other states’ redistricting efforts is disingenuous given Illinois’ own extreme gerrymandering history.

“Nothing is more phony than disingenuous and hypocritical outrage from a grandstanding Governor who signed some of the worst partisanly gerrymandered legislative maps in the country,” Spain said in a press release. “I disagree with efforts in other states to double down on further partisan gerrymandering, but I can make that statement because I voted against partisan gerrymandering in Illinois and have been dedicated to its elimination for many years.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is intensifying pressure on absent Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block a redistricting vote that could add five GOP seats in the 2026 midterms. 

Abbott has accused the Democrats of abandoning their duties and has threatened to arrest and remove them from office if they do not return by 3 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 4, when the Texas House set to reconvene. Abbott also cited a legal opinion and warning of potential felony charges related to fundraising to cover fines, levied at $500 per day, incurred during their absence. 

This is not the first time Texas Democrats have fled their state to block a vote. A similar walkout in 2021 over voting restrictions led Texas lawmakers to impose $500 daily fines for such absences. Nor is it the first time Illinois has played host to out-of-state Democrats. Indiana and Wisconsin lawmakers sought sanctuary in the state during high-profile legislative standoffs in 2011.

But Illinois Republicans argue that any moral high ground claimed by Democrats is undermined by the state’s own redistricting history, shaped for decades by former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who begins a 7.5-year prison sentence in October for bribery. 

Madigan’s manipulation of legislative maps entrenched Democratic control, making Illinois one of the least politically competitive states in the country. 

Court proceedings revealed Madigan amassed a $40 million fortune during his time in power, which he handed off, along with favorably gerrymandered maps, to Gov. Pritzker upon resigning in 2021.

Gerrymandering in Illinois has led Democrats to hold super-majorities in both chambers of the state’s General Assembly, controlling 78 seats in the House and 40 in the Senate. 

This dominant legislative power allows them to pass most legislation without even allowing Republican debate in the General Assembly. 

Additionally, Illinois Democrats in the General Assembly receive millions to invest in their communities each year while Republicans receive nothing. This selective funding has been characterized as “legalized bribes,” costing the state around $240 million per year.