Ohio lawmakers are preparing to reach an unexpected agreement on a new congressional map
Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Ohio are set to agree to a deal on a new congressional map that would give a slight, but not overwhelming, boost to the Republican Party before next year’s midterm elections, a source familiar with the negotiations told NBC News.
Members of the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission plan to announce the deal at a meeting Thursday This would shift two Democratic-controlled districts to the right and one to the left. It will also retain ten districts that favor Republicans and two Democratic strongholds. Punchbowl News was first to report Deal details.
The agreement comes as a surprise to many observers. Democrats largely expected the constitutionally mandated redistricting commission to deadlock, as it did in 2021. If the commission failed to settle on a new map before the 2026 elections, the responsibility for setting congressional boundaries would fall to the Republican-controlled Legislature, which would have drawn a strongly distorted map. If that happened, Democrats threatened to hold a statewide referendum that could have blocked voters from taking the map into effect.
The map enacted by the state’s redistricting commission will not be subject to a referendum, while Democrats will avoid a worst-case scenario map. The source said that Republicans showed Democrats during the negotiations a map showing the Republican Party’s control over 13 out of 15 counties in the state.
A voter referendum on such a map would have required Democrats to collect nearly 250,000 signatures in just 90 days, a difficult feat under any scenario, let alone the holidays and winter months in Ohio.
The state is represented in Congress by 10 Republicans and five Democrats. Democratic Reps. Greg Landsman and Marcy Kaptur will face more competitive districts under the new map, while Rep. Emilia Sykes’ district will become slightly more Democratic.
Under current lines Report politically with Amy Walter’s review Kaptur and Sykes’ seats are considered “likely Democratic” and Landman’s seats are considered “likely Democratic.”
The emergence of the new Ohio map proposal comes amid an unusually aggressive mid-decade redistricting cycle, initiated by President Donald Trump, who asked Republican-led states to draw new maps in an attempt to shore up the party’s narrow majority in the US House of Representatives.
The states of Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have drawn maps to strengthen Republicans, while Democrats in California are asking voters to approve new district lines next week.
Democrats in Virginia took steps this week to amend the redistricting commission to allow them to redraw their state’s map next year, while GOP lawmakers in Indiana are expected soon to consider redistricting efforts. Other states, including Louisiana, are awaiting a Supreme Court ruling that they hope will open the door to redrawing congressional maps next year as well.