U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock said that redistricting is to blame for Republican losses in Illinois this year.

Democrats picked up four U.S. House seats and gained several in the Illinois General Assembly. Schock expects the new voting map to change Republicans’ political strategies going forward.

“If you know you’re a party that needs to win independent and Democratic voters, you can’t be so strident,” he said. “You can’t just placate the base all the time, ‘cause at the end of the day, if you just win Republicans in Illinois, you are going to lose on Election Day.”

He said that means that in the suburbs, Republicans will need to be less socially conservative, while Downstate, they’ll have to show stronger cooperation with unions.

District remapping occurs every ten years based on census numbers. This year, the process happened under Democratic control.