Hundreds of protesters gathered at Millennium Park Saturday afternoon to rally against redistricting efforts in Texas that could give Republicans five additional U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections.

They were joined by more than a dozen Texas House Democrats who have stayed in Illinois since Aug. 3 to block the gerrymandering. The legislators urged their supporters across the country to continue opposing the Texas Republicans’ efforts.

“Our plan was to wake up the nation,” Texas State Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, told the crowd. “Our plan is to fight in the courts. We hope they’re fair this time. Our plan is to make sure our messaging gets to you.”

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Demonstrators march in support of Texas House Democrats toward Federal Plaza Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Chicago. Legislators from Texas traveled to Illinois for several days in an effort to block a Republican-led congressional redistricting plan for their state. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

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The Texas Democrats intend to return to the Lone Star State Monday, according to a Texas House Democrats spokesperson and Texas State Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston.

Saturday’s protesters directed much of their frustration at President Donald Trump, who has supported Texas Republicans’ proposed map. The rally was one of more than 200 similar protests planned across the country, and follows other coordinated anti-Trump events like the No Kings protest in June and Good Trouble Lives On protest in July.

“I think Trump is genuinely eroding away at our basic democratic freedoms, crippling the legal system, attempting to violate separation of powers,” said Sophia Liu, a student at the University of Chicago who attended the protest Saturday.

Protesters heard from members of the Texas delegation and local leaders, including U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez and Chicago Federation of Labor secretary and treasurer Don Villar. Then, they marched down Michigan Avenue and Adams Street to Federal Plaza, chanting “Whose house? Our house” and “immigrants are here to stay.”

Democrats around the country have attacked the Texas gerrymandering plan for its timing, saying redistricting shouldn’t happen in the middle of the decade.

As the Texas controversy moved further into the national spotlight, several other states have considered upping their own partisan gerrymandering efforts. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, proposed a ballot initiative Thursday to give Democrats five more U.S. House seats, the AP reported. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said earlier this month that though he doesn’t want to, he hasn’t taken redistricting off the table.

Other Republican-controlled states, including Missouri, are also considering, or at least not opposed to, mid-decade partisan redistricting as well.

Some protesters were uneasy at the prospect of back-and-forth partisan redistricting.

Luke Hopkins, a current graduate student and former U.S. Marine who lives in North Center, said he thinks Texas’ redistricting efforts “are a clear abuse of power” and “not what democracy is about.” Still, California’s response was somewhat “troubling,” he said shortly after writing “veterans against Trump” in blue chalk at Federal Plaza.

“You have to fight fire with fire sometimes,” he said. “I don’t think either is very good for democracy overall.”

But for Liu, California’s pushback is necessary to make sure there’s still meaningful opposition to Trump after the midterm elections.

“I can imagine, if another thing like the ‘Big Beautiful Bill part two’ came out,” it would harm millions of Americans,” she said, referencing the Republican-led federal legislation that heavily cut social services while increasing funding for immigration enforcement. “And I think that’s a greater harm than gerrymandering in the moment.”

In the long term, Liu said she would support efforts to end all partisan gerrymandering.

But Texas House Democrat leader, State Rep. Gene Wu, said the escalations between Texas, California and other states aren’t simply a tit-for-tat political battle. Instead, he said, there was a clear “attacking” and “defending” force — comparing the situation to “Russia invading Ukraine.”

“What California is proposing would only happen if Texas chose to do the wrong thing,” Wu said.

With California and other Democratic states’ gerrymandering threats in place, Wu said he and his colleagues have a safety net to return to the state, where they are likely to lose the redistricting fight in the Republican-controlled Texas legislature.

They look to legally challenge the Republican-drawn maps next, Wu said.

“Our chances in court I think are good,” he said. “I know we don’t trust the courts, but I think this is something that is so racist, so unconstitutional, that the courts cannot look away.”

Originally Published: August 16, 2025 at 2:09 PM CDT