U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was in Illinois on Monday, meeting with members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and Black members of the state’s congressional delegation in Chicago. Later in the day he was in Springfield to meet with the House Speaker and the Senate President.
While the New York the congressman told reporters his talks with the 2 leaders were “positive” and focused on “the need to keep all options on the table and respond decisively,” State Representative Patrick Windhorst says leaders need to focus on the business of Illinois.
“In Illinois, we have some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country. We need to be focused on issues that affect the daily lives of Illinoisans [like] reducing the cost of living and making sure that our people are safe instead of focusing on these partisan political issues that are only meant to address issues in Washington D.C. Let’s focus on the business of Illinois and let the politics of Washington resolve itself”
Representative Dave Severin meanwhile says Illinois needs to repair the current maps rather than further skew maps in Democrats favor.
“If we want to talk about remapping, we need to fix the maps that we have now for the House and the Senate, that’s what needs to be fixed. He’s in town playing politics. We have concerns that we have now that we’re dealing with but we’d be tend to the good if we had the maps we should have.”
Republicans currently hold just 18% of the state’s congressional seats. That’s despite President Donald Trump winning 43.5% of the statewide vote in 2024.