By Illinois Review
According to a report, U.S. House Democrats are working behind closed doors to redraw Illinois’s congressional map – this time to wipe out Republican Congressman Darin LaHood’s seat.
LaHood, who represents Illinois’s 16th Congressional District, has long been a target of national Democrats. The district – anchored in northwestern and central Illinois – leans solidly Republican, but under the latest proposal, Democrats want to reroute its boundaries deeper into blue territory, forcing LaHood into a costly and unnecessary fight for survival.
Punchbowl News reports that top House Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have privately urged Illinois Democratic leaders to deliver another safe seat in the next redraw – shifting the balance from a 14-3 Democratic advantage to a near-total 15-2 lock.
It’s a calculated move by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which views LaHood’s seat as its most vulnerable GOP target in the Midwest.
This move comes as Illinois Democrats continue to scold Republicans in Texas for gerrymandering – an act they themselves perfected years ago. Gov. JB Pritzker, who once promised to veto any partisan map, instead signed one of the most aggressively partisan gerrymanders in the nation.
Independent analysts at the Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave Illinois’s map a failing grade for fairness.
Yet when Texas Republicans drew new lines to strengthen their own majority, Illinois Democrats were quick to clutch their pearls. Pritzker and his allies called it “voter suppression” and “an attack on democracy.”
Meanwhile, Illinois’s own map looks like something drawn by a pretzel factory.
LaHood, a consistent advocate for fair representation, blasted the Democrats’ 2021 map as “a slap in the face to good governance.” Now, those same mapmakers are coming for him. Their message is clear: if you can’t beat Republicans at the ballot box, redraw the lines until you do.
The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Illinois Democrats even welcomed Texas Democrats to the state when they fled Austin to protest “unfair maps.” Those same lawmakers are now silent as their Illinois hosts carve up communities, split counties, and dilute conservative votes.
For families and taxpayers across central and northern Illinois, this is about more than politics – it’s about honesty in representation. When one party manipulates maps to cement its dominance, voters lose their voice, communities lose their identity, and democracy becomes a punchline.
