Welch Spokesman: No Congressional Map Vote This Week
House Speaker Chris Welch speaks on the floor of the House in 2021. (Photo: State Journal-Register)
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After House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries put the screws to legislative Democrats Monday pushing for a mid-decade redistricting of the state’s congressional district, the push, for now at least, was in vain.
A spokesman for House Speaker Chris Welch told The Illinoize Tuesday confirmed Welch had not received any map proposals from Washington Democrats and it won’t be on the veto session agenda.
“We will not be passing any map this week,” a spokesman said.
Black Democrats have remained an obstacle for moving forward with a map that would squeeze a 15th blue seat into an already gerrymandered map.
Sen. Willie Preston (D-Chicago), one of the co-chairs of the Legislative Black Caucus and a congressional candidate, told The Bulwark he wouldn’t be supporting any effort that could dilute Black representation in the Illinois delegation.
“There’s no world where I could accept a loss of black representation—certainly not a voluntary gift of black representation—so that the Democratic party could win,” Preston said.
Legislative leaders have continually left open the possibility of further changes to the congressional map, but Republicans say it likely wouldn’t pass scrutiny in the courts because petitions are already being filed and the election cycle is already underway.
