By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The prospect of Illinois legislators changing the state’s congressional maps before the 2026 election seems unlikely with time and the governor as potential challenges.

President Donald Trump suggested states that can give Republicans an advantage, should. This summer, several dozen Democrats from Texas fled to Illinois to avoid voting for that state’s new congressional maps that gives Republicans an advantage.

Mid-cycle redistricting is rare, but not illegal. Several states have redistricted mid-cycle several times in the past few decades, including Texas.

Don Tracy, a Republican running for the seat being vacated by Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, called congressional Democrats’ push to gerrymander Illinois “cynical” and “pure political opportunism.”

“Governor JB Pritzker was extremely critical of Texas’ redistricting,” Tracy said in a statement. “Yet he’s silent as his own party attempts to manipulate Illinois’ map to entrench power.”

In front of The Economic Club of Chicago Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker was asked if Illinois will follow suit to give Democrats an advantage. Pritzker hedged.

“I don’t think any of it is good. I don’t want to do it for the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “I don’t think we should redistrict here. I have to say though that we live in, I mean, the most dangerous times that I can remember when it comes to preserving our democratic institutions. They are breaking them down everywhere. What should we do? Should we just sit back and let it happen? I don’t know what the right answer is.”

Monday, candidates for the 2026 primary, including those seeking office for one of Illinois’ 17 U.S. House seats, begin filing their nominating petitions. The primary is March 17. The midterm election is Nov. 3, 2026.

Illinois’ maps are already among the worst gerrymandered, giving Democrats a 14-3 advantage over Republicans for Illinois’ congressional delegation despite President Donald Trump getting nearly 45% of the vote in 2024.

Pritzker said he favors a national commission for redistricting.

“The idea that we should have fair elections and that we should have a map that is reflective, I agree,” Pritzker said. “So guess what, in 2021, the Congress introduced a bill, Democrats introduced a bill, that would require independent commissions for every state because you just can’t do it one state or another state.”

Redistricting commission efforts for Illinois have been blocked in the past with the prospect that the question could come up for voters in 2026.