Ohio Republicans failed to advance the congressional map Tuesday, which Ohio Democrats believed to be fair and constitutional, leading to the move to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority.
The House met on Tuesday, discussing the redistricting proposal presented by Ohio Democrats. Republicans at the meeting chose to ignore the deadline and wait until November to pass a map without democratic support, according to Signal Ohio.
According to a press release on the Ohio House of Representatives' website, the Ohio Legislature had until Tuesday to hold at least two public hearings and vote on a bipartisan map. Each chamber of the Ohio General Assembly would need to have 60% of the votes for the map to be approved.
The Redistricting Commission now has until Oct. 30 to create a new congressional map, but only if Democrats agree, according to Signal Ohio. The commission is made up of five Republicans and two Democrats.
Eva Grace, a 2025 alumna of political science at Ohio University, highlighted the partiality in the Commission.
“Having to go back to the commission to draw new congressional maps provides the opportunity for a less than democratic map to be proposed,” Grace said.
If the map is not passed as bipartisan through the Redistricting Commission, the Ohio legislature must elect a map through majority vote in November. As the majority of the legislature, Republican lawmakers can elect a new map without Democratic support.
“We have less than three weeks to get our work done here in the House for this stage of the process,” Ohio House minority leader Dani Isaacsohn said, according to the press release. “Gerrymandering is why people are losing health insurance, hospitals are closed and more kids are going hungry, so we can’t address this issue soon enough. The time to act is now.”
Grace believes Athens County has been gerrymandered into Republican districts to offset the more progressive population of Athens city.
“Ohio’s current map is gerrymandered,“ Lauren Dikis, Chair of the Athens County Democratic Party, said. "In 2024, 55% of Ohioans voted for the Republican candidate, but 66% of our Congressional seats are in strong Republican districts."
Dikis believes the need for a new map is past overdue, though the process for the redrawing of the congressional maps in Ohio is “neither effective nor fair,” Dikis said.
President Donald Trump has promoted the trend of redrawing House districts in other states in preparation for the 2026 elections, according to the Associated Press.
“Ohio has some of the most rigged districts in the country, which has led to almost single-party rule and an out-of-teach leadership,“ Isaacsohn said in the press release. "Ohioans should come first, not President Trump’s political agenda. We’re Midwest nice till you start to mess with our maps!”
