Mark Albers, President of Niles Township Republicans, said that Texas Democrats fled to Illinois. However, he accused Illinois Democrats, led by Governor JB Pritzker, of engaging in significant gerrymandering themselves. Albers made these remarks to North Cook News.
“In an act of political theater, Texas Democrats ran off to Illinois to protest redistricting back home,” said Albers. “Meanwhile, they turn a blind eye to Illinois, where Democrats have drawn outrageously unfair maps. Under Governor Pritzker, the Democratic supermajority has suppressed the voices of nearly half the state’s voters. It’s time for Republicans to stand up and demand a return to fair representation.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Governor JB 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.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project’s latest report on Illinois’s current congressional map scored the state’s updated 2021 redistricting with an ‘F.’ The grade was attributed to a significant Democratic incumbent advantage, poor competitiveness compared 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 gerrymandering. In 2021, Illinois lawmakers approved a congressional map that received failing grades from Princeton for partisan bias and poor geographic design; Governor JB 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. The WSJ noted that Illinois previously hosted similar protests from Indiana and Wisconsin lawmakers.
Mark Albers is a resident of Morton Grove, IL and was appointed as the Niles Township GOP organization’s president early in 2024. He has also recently run for an Illinois House seat (#15). Albers is committed to boosting Republican voter turnout in Niles Township, growing the township’s Republican membership, and communicating Republican positions on issues important to Niles Township voters.
