While many of us will be hunkering down to watch Illinois and Northwestern — or Michigan and Ohio State — duke it out Nov. 29, there’s a new kind of interstate rivalry brewing.
The great issue driving this animosity is political maps, and who can rig the system best to give their political allies an advantage.
These matchups include: California versus Texas — two giants at opposite ends of the political spectrum, both redrawing their congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Elsewhere, GOP-led Missouri is moving ahead with a new congressional map while Democrats in Maryland debate whether to join the mid-decade redraw. And then there’s the rivalry we care about most today: Illinois versus Indiana.
Yes, Indiana and Illinois get pitted against each other quite frequently, most recently driven by the Hoosier State’s bizarre campaign to redraw their state lines to include a handful of existing Illinois counties. That’s not happening, and while Indiana’s flirtation with mid-cycle redistricting appears to be fizzling, it gave Pritzker one more example to point to as he kept Illinois’ own redistricting options on the table.
“If Indiana does it … I think that would push Illinois toward redistricting,” Pritzker said Nov. 12 on the “Pivot” podcast. Why does Indiana’s decision matter? Aside from being a neighbor, Indiana has a similarly partisan legislative landscape — and Illinois Democrats often point to GOP-dominated states to justify their own maneuvers.
Thankfully, Indiana’s not going there, after much speculation that they might.
Gov. Mike Braun, Pritzker’s conservative opposite number in Indiana, had called for a special session at the start of December to consider, among other things, congressional redistricting. But Indiana Senate Pro Tem Rod Bray announced last week that the Senate would not convene, confirming that Republicans don’t have the votes for redistricting.
In other words, Indiana appears to be moving on. Illinois should, too, at least on congressional maps.
Pritzker has to recognize the unpopularity of mid-decade redistricting for purely political purposes in a state with some of the worst gerrymandering in the country. He and the Democrats in the General Assembly simply don’t have the moral high ground on this issue.
Perhaps, for now, the governors from our two great states can call a truce.
Maps are traditionally only redrawn once a decade, after the census releases new population data. Opening them up earlier isn’t necessarily bad — we’ve called for that to happen here in Illinois to address our rigged state legislative maps. But that kind of reform wasn’t what was on the table.
Instead, what we’ve seen this year is a wave of opportunistic map manipulation. Texas was the first mover, with the state legislature approving new congressional maps in August after weeks of pressure from President Donald Trump. Some Texas Democrats fled to Illinois to try to block the vote before ultimately returning to face the inevitable. California voters jumped in next, approving Prop 50 earlier this month as a counter.
Not only do we believe it would be wrong to open up the maps for any reason other than addressing unfairness at the state legislative level, but also the Democrats just don’t need the help. They already hold 14 out of Illinois’ 17 congressional seats.
Let’s hope Pritzker meant what he said about Indiana, and we can finally put this political stunt to bed.
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