SPRINGFIELD — A downstate judge has rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit seeking an order for Illinois law enforcement to arrest and return to the Lone Star state Democratic legislators who are staying in Illinois in order to prevent a controversial vote to remap congressional districts as requested by President Donald Trump.
Adams County Judge Scott Larson ruled Wednesday that the Illinois circuit court “does not have the inherent power to initiate, consider and determine” whether the Texas Democrats are in Illinois “for the purpose of willfully evading” warrants issued by Paxton.
Dozens of Texas Democrats have taken refuge in Illinois this month with the support of Gov. JB Pritzker to deny Republicans a quorum needed during its special legislative session to approve new congressional maps. Their stay at a St. Charles hotel and convention complex prompted bomb threats that were deemed unfounded.
Trump asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to call the special session to draw new legislative maps outside the usual post-census period in order to carve out five more Republican-leaning seats that could give the GOP an advantage in increasing their slim majority in Congress in the 2026 midterm election.
The effort has led to an escalating war of gerrymandering words with Pritzker and the governors of other Democratic-led states who say they could redraw their own states’ maps to counter potential GOP gains.
Abbott ordered Texas state troopers to search for his state’s absent Democrats and arrest them, but Illinois is outside their jurisdiction. The Democrats who have left the state still face fines of up to $500 per day.
“Each of these members has a voice and a vote — they do not have the right to deny the voices and votes of other members by withholding their own,” Paxton’s lawsuit states. “They do not have a right to bring the machinery ... to a screeching halt over results with which they do not agree.”
Larson wrote that Paxton didn’t show “a legal basis for the court to obtain subject matter jurisdiction” and that the court “does not have the inherent power to direct Illinois law enforcement officers” to round up the lawmakers.
Illinois politicians on both sides of the aisle have highlighted the Texas remap fight this week at the Illinois State Fair, which marks the unofficial start of the 2026 campaign season.
“Texas Republicans are violating the Voting Rights Act, and they’re trying to break the rules — to cheat — in the middle of a process,” Pritzker said after his Governor’s Day rally Wednesday in Springfield. “This is now halfway into a decade. That is not when you redistrict. They’re only doing that for one reason — because they’re licking boots.”
Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, called it “ironic that Texas Democrats are coming to Illinois,” pointing to this state’s congressional maps that are drawn to heavily favor Democrats, who hold a 14-3 advantage in the congressional delegation.
“You’re talking about Trump getting 43.5% of the vote [in Illinois], but we only have three Republican congressionals,” McCombie said.
