Chambana Sun

In an Aug. 8 Facebook post, Rep. Adam Niemerg raised the alarm about efforts to redesign the Illinois State Flag. Niemerg shared a screenshot of a Fox 32 news article about the signing of Senate Bill 1818 in his Facebook post.

"This bill has me concerned," Niemerg wrote on his post. "What does the radical left think our flag should be? I voted NO[.]"

In his Facebook post, Niemerg shared a graphic from a Fox 32 article on the signing of SB 1818. That article says that there have been “only two state flag designs” throughout the state’s 205-year history.

On Aug. 7, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office put out a press release about the signing of the bill, touching on the two flag designs the Fox 32 article referred to. "Throughout our 205-year history, Illinois has boasted two official state flags — and it may be time we create a new one that exemplifies the values of our great state," Pritzker said, according to the release. "Today, I am proud to sign SB 1818 to establish the Illinois Flag Commission to aid us in this process as we decide what our future flag should represent."

Filed in February by Sen. Doris Turner (D-Bunker Hill), SB 1818 “creates the Illinois Flag Commission for the purpose of developing a new State flag design and making recommendations to the General Assembly concerning whether the current State flag ought to be replaced with a redesigned state flag.” It gives a Sept. 1 deadline for a first meeting of the Illinois Flag Commission, a deadline for recommendations to the General Assembly of Dec. 3. Nowhere does it say the flag must be replaced. The bill moved to the House on March 23, and passed both houses on May 17. It was sent to Pritzker on June 15 for his signature.

NBC5 Chicago reports that other states have changed their flags, and that Illinois is not the only state that has gone through the process. In fact, the news outlet says Illinois’ process resembles the process Utah went through in 2021, when they received more than 7,000 designs. South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi also changed their flags, although some changes were more noticeable than others.