Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was forced to confront the absurdity of his own state’s gerrymandered congressional map on national television.
His explanation? A joke that kindergarteners drew the map.
During a Tuesday appearance in friendly territory on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” host Stephen Colbert pulled up Illinois’ 17th Congressional District and asked Pritzker to explain its bizarre boundaries.
“If you are considering doing a little more redrawing in Illinois, you already have some crazy districts,” Colbert, to his credit, said. “Take a look at this. Look at 17 here. 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.”
Colbert followed up with another oddly-shaped district and quipped, “It’s like a stinger on a scorpion down here. Is this common for all states to do?”
Pritzker, who is harboring runaway Texas Democrats who are trying to stop redistricting in their state, responded with the joke.
“We handed it over to a Kindergarten class and let them decide.”
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Now STEPHEN COLBERT is calling out Illinois for their Dem gerrymandering and Gov. JB Pritzker couldn’t even defend it…In fact, he INSULTED his own map. pic.twitter.com/6f6xKLd9Gc
“We handed it to a Kindergarten class and let them decide.”
They DON’T EVEN HIDE IT.…
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 6, 2025
But the segment quickly turned from one-sided “comedy” to outright hypocrisy.
Do you support Texas’ redistricting efforts?
Colbert asked why Texas Republicans redrawing the map was “particularly egregious” if all states engage in some form of gerrymandering, including his own.
Pritzker pivoted to the usual talking point with no pushback from the host.
“They are literally obliterating districts that were written according to the Voting Rights Act,” he claimed of Texas Republicans, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported. “So this is going to end up in court if they are actually able to do it.”
The Illinois governor went on to accuse Texas Republicans of racism — because that’s what Democrats do.
“That is extraordinarily rare,” Pritzker said. “And the way they are doing it is taking voting rights away from black and brown people.”
Left unmentioned by the governor is the sheer extent to which Illinois has gerrymandered its own map.
Illinois is one of the most gerrymandered state in the nation and it isn’t close. I particularly love how they managed to create the 13th district to get a Dem district out of a deep red area. https://t.co/yBQSqlhoBH pic.twitter.com/Jn93ovOQWw
— David Chavous (@DACDAC4DAC) August 3, 2025
Democrats in Illinois hold 82 percent of the congressional seats — 14 total — despite making up only 34.5 percent of registered voters, according to the Independent Voter Project.
Republicans make up 27 percent, a gap of just 7.5 points.
Only three Republican representatives represent Illinois: Mary Miller, Darin LaHood, and Mike Bost.
One of the most glaring examples is the 17th district, which Colbert mentioned meanders from Rockford to Rock Island to Bloomington.
It ropes in rural conservatives under Democratic Rep. Eric Sorensen, but it is apparently not at all racist.
Rather than address that imbalance, Pritzker deflected with partisan attacks as Colbert just let him slide.
The segment is precisely why Democrats don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to griping about gerrymandering — and an example of why “The Late Show” is getting canceled.
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