Dupage Policy Journal

Kevin Coyne, the DuPage County GOP Chairman, criticized Governor JB Pritzker's campaign event in DuPage County as "embarrassing" and accused Illinois Democrats of engaging in partisan gerrymandering.

"It is regrettable that Governor Pritzker chose DuPage County to host his embarrassing campaign stunt tonight," said Coyne, Dupage GOP Chairman. "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."

According to Capitol News Illinois, Texas House Democrats traveled to Illinois to block a mid-cycle vote on a Republican-led plan to add five GOP congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. At a press conference in DuPage County, Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu described the move as a moral stand to protect democracy. Pritzker said that Donald Trump and Texas Republicans are "cheating" by attempting to redraw maps mid-decade. Illinois Republicans countered by labeling the Democrats’ visit as hypocritical, highlighting Illinois' own 14-3 Democrat-favoring congressional map as one of the most gerrymandered in the nation. Texas officials, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, have called for the absent lawmakers to be arrested and returned to their state.

As of the 2025 legislative session, Democrats hold a significant majority in both chambers of the Illinois legislature: a 40–19 majority in the Senate and a 78–40 majority in the House. Despite this, Republicans represent roughly 45% of the voter population according to Ballotpedia.

Coyne expressed his views on X: "If Pritzker wants to take on the issue of Fair Maps he should do it in the State that he actually represents. 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."

Senate Minority Leader John Curran also weighed in, stating: "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." He added that "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."

Coyne is not only chairing DuPage County GOP but also has experience as a former Naperville City Councilman (2015–2021) and is known for founding Safe Suburbs USA PAC, which focuses on public safety-oriented candidates.