Illinois Governor Stands Firm on Protecting Texas Democrats Due to FBI Arrest Threats, Other States Join Fight
- Natalie Frank
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
As partisan redistricting battle heats up ahead of 2026 midterms, J.B. Pritzker vows to safeguard lawmakers who fled Texas in protest
Natalie C. Frank, Ph.D August 8, 2025
ILLINOIS — Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has left nothing open to interpretation. If FBI agents come with the intention of arresting Texas Democrats currently sheltering in his state, they will find no cooperation from Illinois law enforcement. The governor’s comments come amid growing political and legal pressure over Texas GOP’s mid-term redistricting efforts, an effort Democrats claim would undercut voting rights and tip the balance of congressional power in Republican’s favor.
“They’re grandstanding,” Pritzker said when asked about former President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the FBI “may have to” get involved to bring the absent legislators back to Texas. Pritzker asserted, “There literally is no federal law applicable to this situation, none.”
The political battle started when Texas Democrats, facing a Republican-led effort to redraw the state’s congressional districts in their favor, staged a sudden walkout to ensure the state House was unable to reach a quorum. With only 88 Republican representatives, the GOP fell short of the 100 needed for official business and to allow a vote. The GOP’s redistricting plan was put on hold when more than 50 Democratic lawmakers left the state for Democratic-led strongholds including Illinois, California, and New York.
Redistricting occurs once every ten years after the U.S. Census is completed to represent population shifts. But the Texas plan, introduced halfway through the decade, is viewed by Democrats as an aggressive partisan maneuver to obtain at least five additional U.S. House seats before the 2026 midterm elections.
These efforts were initiated by Donald Trump who believes that Republicans deserve five more seats in Texas and many additional seats in California. This last ditch effort is intended to prevent the House from flipping to Democrat should the current districting maps be upheld.
“We should have many more seats in California. It’s all gerrymandered,” he said. “And we have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”
