Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) avoided questions about his state’s congressional maps Sunday by calling out Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) for “licking the boots of his leader, Donald Trump,” by redistricting.

Illinois is the most gerrymandered state, with 82% of its 17 House seats occupied by Democrats. Democrats won 55% of the presidential vote in 2024, leaving a 27-point gap between their overall state partisan advantage and advantage in House seats.  

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Yet when asked about 45% of Republican voters in Illinois being represented by only three House seats, Pritzker said the map “follows the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution” on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday. During Pritzker’s segment, the show aired a clip of Abbott calling Illinois’s congressional map “a joke.”

“Gov. Abbott is the joke. He is the one who is attempting middecade here at a time when, frankly, all of us are concerned about the future of democracy,” Pritzker said in response. 

“He’s literally helping whittle it away and licking the boots of his leader, Donald Trump. Here in Illinois, we followed the law,” the Democratic governor added.

Meet the Press host Kristen Welker followed up two more times, asking for Pritzker to explain and defend his state’s position as the most gerrymandered, but the governor returned to President Donald Trump.

“[Trump] knows he’s going to lose the Congress in 2026. That’s why he’s going to his allies and hoping that they can save him, and we’ve all got to stand up against this,” Pritzker said. 

“It’s cheating. Donald Trump is a cheater. He cheats on his wives. He cheats at golf and now he’s trying to cheat the American people out of their votes,” he added.

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Trump has backed maps to change districts in Texas to win five more seats for the Republican Party. While the Texas House was slated to vote on redistricting Monday, the chamber failed to reach a quorum, as 50 Democratic lawmakers left for Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois.

Texas legislators held a rally in Chicago last week where they were accompanied by U.S. representatives for Texas, like Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) and Al Green (D-TX), who stand to lose their districts according to the new map. Some 33 Texas state legislators remain in Illinois.