Gov. JB Pritzker speaks June 3, 2025, during the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency. | Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune
By Rick Pearson and Jeremy Gorner | Chicago Tribune
Opting to use what Texas politicians called a nuclear option, Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left for Chicago on Sunday under threat of fines and arrest to deny Republicans the quorum they need to redraw five congressional districts aimed at helping President Donald Trump and the national GOP maintain a U.S. House majority in next year’s midterm elections.
The Texas Democrats were scheduled to be met by a supportive Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker upon their arrival in Chicago. Pritzker issued a statement echoing Texas Democratic arguments that Republicans were using a special legislative session in Austin, aimed at providing relief for last month’s flood victims in the state’s Hill Country, to please Trump and “as political cover to push through a racially gerrymandered congressional map.”
“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” state Rep. Gene Wu, the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.
“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Wu said. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage for a Trump gerrymander. We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”
By coming to Illinois, the Democrats from Texas are leaving a state where Republicans dominate and will find themselves in a state where the opposite is true.
Pritzker, in his statement, said the move denies Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott a quorum “to pass his rigged redistricting scheme,” which was encouraged by Trump’s political allies.
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