No Way Politico Thought They Could Publish This Without a Healthy Dose of Mockery

Matt Vespa | August 11, 2025 6:55 AM

How is this even a real headline? What is everyone drinking in the media ecosphere, anyway, since it’s not water? Everyone engages in gerrymandering, both Democrats and Republicans—and I couldn’t care less. This little story caught fire when Texas Democrats fled the state to prevent a quorum in the state legislature that would’ve approved a new congressional map that would supposedly favor Republicans. Some absconded to heavily gerrymandered Illinois for this stunt, which you cannot make up.

🤣 https://t.co/WgFNSvRvTo
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 10, 2025

Just perfect, Politico. Take a bow. https://t.co/evHdxWGZbm
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) August 10, 2025

You guys know we can see this, right? https://t.co/ygeg8SSbKY
— RBe (@RBPundit) August 10, 2025

Democrats are freaking out since they can’t gerrymander their bastions anymore, and they’re caught in this silly game of saying that when they gerrymander, it’s for the protection of democracy, whereas the GOP does it to rig elections. Guys, this battle isn’t real, the talking points are laughably disingenuous, and, once again, no one cares. But we do get gems like this: Democrats try to separate their tactical use of redistricting from that of Republicans—what in the fresh hell is this?

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are pushing back against the notion that Democrats’ gerrymandering efforts bear any resemblance to Republican plans to extract five new seats in Texas ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
[…]
With Republicans — at the direction of President Donald Trump — pushing a rare mid-decade redraw of the Texas legislative maps, dozens of Lone Star State House Democrats fled the state for Illinois and other blue states in early August, preventing the Texas legislature from reaching a quorum. Now, the FBI is assisting in efforts to find them, though Pritzker said Texas law on quorums has no validity in Illinois. As for their own party’s coming redistricting efforts, national Democrats say the time is now to fight fire with fire.
Republicans say that’s hypocritical.
Trump won nearly 44 percent of the vote in Illinois last year, slightly more than the percentage that then-Vice President Kamala Harris won in Texas. But just three of Illinois’ 17 House seats are held by the GOP. Princeton University’s Redistricting Report Card gives the state’s map an F for partisan fairness.