Escape by Texas Democrats is mostly symbolic

I’m assuming you’ve already seen coverage of the Democratic Texas state legislators who fled to Illinois to prevent a Republican-backed redrawing of congressional district lines in their home state. Their absence means their legislature doesn’t have enough members to legally conduct business.
Like every Democratic governor, Gov. JB Pritzker needs his party to win back the US House next year to prevent further fiscal damage to his state (among many, many other things). Hence his intense attention to Texas attempting to pick up five seats with an intercensus remap.
This is also a bit of a public relations payback by Gov. Pritzker after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent tens of thousands of asylum-seekers to Chicago a while back.
Not to mention that the media-friendly press conferences and public appearances raise Pritzker’s national profile ahead of a possible presidential bid.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has his own national ambitions and has floated an idea for a November referendum on redrawing his state’s districts. So, hosting self-exiled Texas Democrats allows Pritzker to say he’s doing something.
Texas state legislators are paid $600 a month. They all have “real” jobs. The TX Dems also walked out in 2021 over a voting rights bill, but the stalemate ended five weeks later when three Democrats returned to the state and a quorum was restored.
This isn’t Texas’ first intercensus redistricting move. In 2001, a federal judge drew Texas’ congressional boundaries, but the Republican-controlled state legislature redrew the map in 2003 (after another failed Democratic walk-out), resulting in big GOP wins in 2004. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan refused to redraw Illinois’ maps in retaliation.
Illinois Democrats currently hold 82 percent of our 17 congressional seats. We live in a heavily gerrymandered state.
Texas Republicans currently hold 66 percent of that state’s 35 congressional seats. The remap could conceivably allow Texas Republicans to pick up five more seats, giving them 79 percent of the state’s districts – which would still be slightly below Illinois’ congressional gerrymander.
But it’s not quite that simple because Texas is being accused of conspiring to undermine the Voting Rights Act by breaking up existing minority-majority districts. The Illinois congressional map had no such issue.
Pritzker has said that redrawing Illinois’ congressional districts to elect another Democrat is a possibility. But Illinois’ petition circulation process began last week.
Unless it’s done really soon, redrawing congressional districts here might require either a separate primary for all US Representatives or moving the whole primary process back for everyone.
The best way to accomplish this goal is by diluting current Democratic districts with more Republicans to make room for another Democratic district. And that may make some Democratic incumbents nervous about elections beyond 2026.
“Nobody's done any work on a map for Illinois,” Gov. JB Pritzker confessed to reporters late last week when asked.
Pritzker’s statement was confirmed by spokespersons for both House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon.
I just don’t see this remap happening here.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) is listed as the sole Illinois attorney in a state lawsuit filed in her native Adams County on behalf of several Republican Texas legislators demanding that Illinois courts assist Texas in forcing the skedaddled Democrats to return to face the music.
Ironically, Tracy’s Senate Republican caucus briefly tried to shut down their chamber a few years ago when the Democrats wanted to redraw some judicial circuit boundaries.
Texas has issued civil warrants for the apprehension of the absconded lawmakers, so their lawsuit is based on pretty thin gruel, particularly since Illinois does not allow the cooperation of its police with federal civil warrants issued by immigration authorities. Outside civil warrants just don’t mean much here.
According to the lawsuit, Illinois has a “mandatory constitutional duty to respect and give full faith and credit to the public acts of the Texas House of Representatives, including the Quorum Order and the Quorum Warrants,” under the “Full Faith and Credit” clause of the United States Constitution.
The plaintiffs want the Texas Democrats held in contempt and a post-haste hearing where the southern state can “present evidence of Respondents’ willful attempts to circumvent Texas law.”
President Trump won Adams County with 73 percent of the vote last year, so prepare yourself for a possible initial win by the Texans. I seriously doubt that the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic Supreme Court would ever go along with any sort of punishment or detention, however.
In other words, this whole thing is mostly symbolic, including (so far, let’s hope) the unfortunately predictable fake bomb threats at the suburban hotel where the Texas Democrats are staying.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.