Redistricting

While candidates filed petitions Monday to run under Illinois’ existing congressional district lines, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries brought his redistricting campaign to Illinois, pitching top state Democrats on a new map in a series of closed-door meetings.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ push for Illinois Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map has met a cool reception with state lawmakers.

Amid Republican party efforts to gain congressional seats through off-cycle redistricting in Texas, there's an effort to revive a push for an Illinois state constitutional amendment to make political redistricting less, well, political.

A group of former Obama administration officials and election lawyers announced Tuesday they are attempting to reform the way the state draws district maps for the state legislature. They want to do this by passing a state constitutional amendment via a ballot initiative during the 2026 general election.

The request sets the stage for an escalation of a war between the Trump administration and Illinois Democrats, with Gov. JB Pritzker at the helm. But it’s unclear what role federal agents can play in the matter, and there were no reports of FBI activity in the area housing Texas Democrats as of Thursday morning.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has told NPR if Texas and other Republican majority states redraw new congressional districts outside the usual schedule after census periods, Illinois and blue states might follow the political escalation.

Around 400 people were evacuated and have safely returned to the premises after police conducted a search, St. Charles police said. Texas Democrats are in Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum on a controversial redistricting.

Democrats in New York, California and Illinois are threatening to redraw their own maps in retaliation to Republican redistricting efforts in Texas.

Texas Democrats joined Gov. JB Pritzker at a Sunday night news conference in Carol Stream, where the Democratic governor railed on President Donald Trump as a “cult leader” and “would-be dictator of the United States” for demanding redistricting.

The maps Illinois Democrats approved in 2021 sealed in their political power for a decade — adding one Hispanic-majority blue seat in Congress and forcing two Republicans out of their districts.