Thanks to gerrymandering, over 90% of recently passed bills in Illinois were sponsored by one party


Partisan politics is a big player in the Illinois Capitol. The state needs real redistricting reform to increase competition, expand representation and strengthen accountability.

Over 90% of the bills that passed both chambers in the second regular session of the 104th Illinois General Assembly were sponsored by Democrats, reflecting one-party dominance created by partisan gerrymandering.

In that second session, nearly 3,100 bills were filed. Almost 400 passed both chambers — with only 34 of those introduced by Republicans. That’s fewer than 10% of the bills sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Why does that matter? The Illinois Democratic supermajority is freezing out its Republican peers via partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts.

Many Republican bills die before even being heard.

All bills filed in the General Assembly go to the House Rules Committee or Senate Assignments Committee before being referred to an appropriate subject committee. In practice, the rules and assignment committees are often where bills go to die.

This is particularly true for bills introduced by Republican lawmakers. Nearly half of Republican-sponsored bills in the 2026 regular session were never referred to a subject committee, compared with 15% of Democrat-sponsored bills.

Illinois needs real redistricting.

In the 2024 presidential election, about 55% of the Illinois vote went to Democrat Kamala Harris, yet the party holds 66% of the total seats in the General Assembly.

For Illinoisans to have a government that represents all its citizens, Republicans and Democrats in Illinois should work to remove politicians from the districting process.

Redistricting reform is popular across the ideological spectrum, and most voters back replacing a lawmaker-controlled process with an independent redistricting commission.

Sixteen states draw state legislative maps another way. Not only that, but Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, New York and Washington explicitly require their state legislative districts to be competitive, meaning the law requires maps to limit the partisan advantage within any individual district.

Illinoisans deserve real redistricting reform to ensure their votes make a difference. That means taking redistricting out of the hands of politicians and requiring competitive districts.