The Left are starting to turn on each other. It’s certainly an ugly sight.
And a Democrat governor was called out during a live TV interview by a fellow Leftist.
On a recent episode of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert turned the spotlight on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, diving into the contentious world of gerrymandering. The segment, which aired Tuesday night, came as Texas Democratic lawmakers fled their state to block a redistricting push, with some landing in Pritzker’s Illinois.
Colbert, with a playful jab, pulled up a map of Illinois’ congressional districts, zooming in on District 17’s odd shape. “If you are considering doing a little more redrawing in Illinois, you already have some crazy districts,” he told Pritzker, likening the district to “the stinger on a scorpion.”
He traced its winding path, noting how it “does that, then it comes up here and it sneaks around there and goes all the way up here, and then goes right over there like that.” Another district, he added, seemed to “whoop up there” in a similarly strange curve.
Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, leaned into the topic. Earlier, he’d suggested Illinois might redraw its maps to boost Democratic congressional candidates, a direct counter to Texas’ moves.
“It’s possible,” he said when asked about matching Texas’ tactics. “As I’ve said, everything’s on the table. Look, we’ve got to fight fire with fire. They’ve frankly tossed the rulebook out. And they’re just acting in an unconstitutional fashion.”
Redistricting, the decennial process of redrawing congressional boundaries post-census, aims to reflect population changes but often becomes a political weapon. States like Texas, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina have stirred controversy by holding special sessions to remap districts early, sparking legal fights.
The term “gerrymander” traces back to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed off on a skewed state Senate map.
“Is this common for all states to do?” Colbert asked. Pritzker replied with a joke, saying, “We handed it over to a kindergarten class and let them decide.”
“That’s the nonpartisan group that does this?” Colbert questioned.
“That’s our independent commission, yeah,” Pritzker shot back.
Colbert pressed further, asking why Texas’ actions were especially bold. Pritzker pointed out, “What the Republicans are trying to do in the — Texas Republicans frankly at the behest of Donald Trump are doing it mid-decade. That is extraordinarily rare.”
Colbert responded back, saying, “That’s a good point because I think he literally called them or wrote them and said, ‘Hey, I need five seats, go redraw this.’”
Illinois’ current House delegation includes 17 members, with just three Republicans—17.6%—despite Trump winning 43.3% of the state’s vote in 2024, hinting a fair map might yield seven GOP seats. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott issued civil arrest warrants for the Democrats who ran off to states like Illinois and New York, while Senator John Cornyn pushed for FBI involvement to bring them back.
Trump, supporting Texas’ efforts, told reporters at the White House, “We have a wonderful governor in Texas. He feels strongly about it. It’s going to be up to him. I think there’s tremendous support for it.”
He noted that Democratic states like California are also eyeing redistricting. “They’ll do it anyway. Why? If we stop over there, they would’ve done it anyway,” he stated, adding, “Look, a lot of these states I watched this morning as Democrats are complaining and they’re complaining from states where they’ve done it in Illinois.”
As Illinois and Texas trade salvos in this redistricting battle, the fight for congressional control continues to reshape the political landscape with no end in sight.
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
