Jim Rule, Chairman of Tazewell County Republicans, said that Texas Democrats have fled to Illinois, yet Illinois Democrats, led by Governor JB Pritzker, are guilty of egregious gerrymandering themselves. Rule made his statement to the Peoria Standard.
“Texas Democrats fled their own state to avoid a redistricting vote led by Republicans, choosing instead to protest in Illinois,” said Rule. “Ironically, they ignore the severe gerrymandering and voter suppression taking place right here in Illinois. Governor Pritzker’s Democratic supermajority has created some of the most biased maps in the country, effectively silencing nearly half the electorate. Republicans must take a stand and push back against this growing one-party control.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Governor Pritzker suggested that Illinois and other Democratic-led states might respond with their own redistricting efforts if Texas Republicans proceed with a plan to redraw legislative maps and secure more GOP congressional seats. Speaking alongside visiting Texas Democrats on July 25, Pritzker warned that a change in one state could prompt action in others, including Illinois. His comments drew criticism from Illinois Republicans, who accused him of hypocrisy given his approval of heavily gerrymandered maps in 2021 that helped Democrats gain a congressional seat. Pritzker dismissed the GOP’s claims, saying all options remain on the table.
In its latest report on Illinois’s current congressional map, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project scored the state’s updated 2021 redistricting with an ‘F.’ The ‘F’ grade was earned due to a significant Democratic incumbent advantage, poor competitiveness in relation to other potential maps, and poor geographic features.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Texas Democrats fled to Illinois to avoid a redistricting vote, though Illinois itself is known for extreme gerrymandering. Illinois lawmakers approved a congressional map in 2021 that received failing grades from Princeton for partisan bias and poor geographic design; Governor Pritzker signed the map into law despite a 2018 pledge to support an independent redistricting commission. Pritzker’s staff has assisted Texas lawmakers with logistics but he has declined to pay for their stay or cover any fines. Illinois previously hosted similar protests from Indiana and Wisconsin lawmakers.
Rule is a resident of Morton and was first elected as Chairman of the Tazewell County Republicans in 2018. According to the organization’s website, Rule is “focused on boosting Republican voter turnout, growing the Party’s membership, and communicating the Party’s positions on issues that matter to Tazewell County voters.”
