Hakeem Jeffries Pushes Illinois to Rig Maps Again

Illinois Democrats already hold a supermajority. Now national party leaders want even more power—enabled by voters who keep returning failure to office.

By Staff Writer
September 19, 2025

The textbooks in Karen’s daughter’s classroom are so old they still list George W. Bush as president. Pages are missing. Covers are torn. And yet, every month, Karen writes a property tax check larger than her sister’s mortgage in Indiana.

“I pay more in property taxes than my sister does for her mortgage in Indiana. And yet my kid’s school can’t afford new textbooks.”

Her frustration is not unique. It is the lived experience of millions across Illinois, where families pay more and more but receive less and less. From broken pensions to failing schools, from shuttered businesses to violent streets, the state is living proof that unchecked political power corrodes from the inside.

And still, Illinoisans continue to send the same politicians back to Springfield and Washington.

Now, U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is demanding that Illinois Democrats go even further—redraw congressional maps mid-decade to offset Republican gains in Texas. His aim is national: secure the U.S. House for Democrats. But for Illinoisans already burdened by one of the most gerrymandered maps in the country, it means one thing: even less choice, even less voice.

The Machine’s Long Shadow

Illinois has never been a model of clean politics. From Richard J. Daley’s iron grip on Chicago’s wards to Michael Madigan’s four-decade reign as House Speaker, power here has always flowed through machines.

Governor J.B. Pritzker was supposed to break that cycle. He promised voters he would veto partisan maps. Instead, he signed some of the most aggressively drawn lines in the nation, ensuring Democrats control 82 percent of Illinois’ congressional seats despite winning just 54 percent of the statewide vote in 2024.

Asked recently about Jeffries’ push, Pritzker stopped short of endorsing it but pledged to “do everything I can to make sure Democrats win the Congress.”

The lesson is clear: reform is promised, power is kept, and voters—year after year—accept it.

From Daley to Madigan to Pritzker: A Machine That Never Died

Illinois’ current dysfunction didn’t appear overnight. It was built, decade after decade, on the backs of ordinary citizens who were treated as political foot soldiers rather than equal participants in democracy.

Richard J. Daley’s Chicago machine turned entire neighborhoods into political fiefdoms. Patronage jobs, public services, even basic city repairs were handed out in exchange for votes. Minority groups were courted during election season with promises of better schools, safer streets, and fair housing—but those promises evaporated once the polls closed. When communities demanded accountability, the machine’s response was clear: fall in line or be punished.

Michael Madigan perfected the model at the state level. For forty years, he controlled Springfield through redistricting, fundraising, and fear. Candidates who crossed him were starved of resources. Minority communities, once again, were drawn into maps that diluted their power while being told they had a “seat at the table.” Their loyalty was expected, their voices silenced.

J.B. Pritzker, despite his wealth and outsider image, embraced the same playbook. He promised independent maps but signed aggressively partisan ones. He, too, arrives in Black and Latino neighborhoods each election cycle with soaring rhetoric about opportunity, only to deliver policies that leave schools underfunded, crime unchecked, and families burdened with rising costs.

From Daley to Madigan to Pritzker, the story is the same: citizens are courted, used, and discarded. Votes are demanded, not earned. And when communities dare to question the bargain, they are threatened with political isolation or told the alternative would be worse.

A State in Decline

The cost of supermajority rule is not a matter of theory. It is visible in every corner of the state:

• Taxes and Debt: Illinoisans shoulder the second-highest property taxes in the nation, while the state drowns in $140 billion of unfunded pension liabilities, the largest in America.

• Population Loss: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 400,000 residents left Illinois between 2010 and 2023, fleeing to lower-tax, safer states like Indiana, Tennessee, and Florida.

• Crime: Chicago has recorded more than 700 homicides in a single year, alongside waves of carjackings and assaults that leave families feeling abandoned.

• Corruption: Former House Speaker Michael Madigan’s 2022 racketeering indictment exposed what Illinoisans already knew: corruption is not a glitch in the system, it is the system.

• Business Flight: In 2022 alone, Caterpillar, Boeing, and Tyson Foods announced relocations out of Illinois, citing high costs and political dysfunction.

• Education: Despite billions in revenue, only 27 percent of Chicago’s 11th graders met reading standards in 2023, a statistic that should shame the state.

Illinois is not suffering from gridlock. It is suffering from domination. One party has ruled unchecked, and voters have allowed it.

Lives Behind the Numbers

“My business survived the pandemic, but I couldn’t survive Springfield’s taxes. We packed up and moved to Tennessee.” — Luis, former small business owner from Rockford

“Every election, it feels like the outcome is already decided. My vote doesn’t matter here, and that’s exactly how they want it.” — David, lifelong Chicago resident

“Down here in southern Illinois, we’re treated like an afterthought. Springfield doesn’t care if our roads crumble or our towns dry up—as long as Chicago politicians keep their seats safe.” — Mark, farmer from Marion County

“I wanted to build a future here, but the crime, the taxes, and the politics pushed me out. Most of my friends from college already left the state. I’m next.” — Alicia, 28, former Chicago resident now moving to Texas

“I worked my whole life, and now my retirement is being eaten up by taxes and broken promises. They’ve stolen our golden years.” — Robert, retired factory worker from Peoria

Different lives. Different struggles. But a single truth: Illinois is failing its people.

Why Voters Keep Choosing Failure

The obvious question is why politicians continue betraying the public trust. The harder, more uncomfortable question is why voters keep rewarding them for it.

Yes, gerrymandering makes districts safe. Yes, incumbents enjoy the perks of power. But ultimately, ballots cast by voters—not maps drawn by politicians—keep the same leaders in office.

Illinois Democrats win election after election not despite the state’s decline but alongside it, as if failure itself has been normalized. Voters tell pollsters they are frustrated, angry, even ready to leave. Then many of them vote to preserve the very system they condemn.

Until Illinoisans change their votes, they will continue to get the government they have.

A Warning for the Nation

Jeffries’ push to redraw Illinois is not about Illinoisans. It is about Washington power games. But what happens here matters for the country.

If Illinois is allowed to become the model—where democracy is reduced to cartography, where one party cements permanent dominance, where voters accept decline as destiny—then the same playbook will spread.

“Democracy isn’t supposed to be about who can draw the sharpest lines—it’s about who those lines represent.”

A Path Forward

Illinois can choose differently. Other states have. Independent redistricting commissions in places like Arizona and California have wrested maps from politicians’ hands. Public hearings and transparent processes have restored faith. Competitive districts have forced leaders to actually earn votes.

These reforms are not fantasies. They are choices. But they require something Illinois has not yet summoned: a voter revolt against the machine.

Closing Scene

Robert, the retired factory worker in Peoria, sits at his kitchen table each month, pension check in hand. He counts out his bills, knowing the property tax envelope will swallow more than he can afford.

“I worked my whole life, and now my retirement is being eaten up by taxes and broken promises. They’ve stolen our golden years.”

Karen’s daughter sits in a classroom with outdated textbooks. Robert sits at his table counting pennies. Between them lies the story of a state hollowed out—not just by politicians clinging to power, but by voters who keep enabling them.

Illinois’ decline is not only imposed from above. It is consented to from below. And until voters choose differently, the story of Illinois will remain a story of betrayal repeated—election after election, map after map.

Sources:

• U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ statements on redistricting strategy.

• Rep. Robin Kelly’s comments on congressional maps.

• Governor J.B. Pritzker’s record and remarks on partisan maps.

• Illinois pension liability reports (Moody’s, Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability).

• U.S. Census Bureau state migration data.

• FBI Uniform Crime Reports & Illinois State Police data.

• Business relocation announcements (Caterpillar, Boeing, Tyson Foods).

• Illinois State Board of Education assessment reports.

• Federal court filings and media coverage of Michael Madigan’s indictment.

• Testimonies and public comments from Illinois voters (compiled from local reporting and interviews).