A full house watches the October 31 meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission. The committee unanimously approved a congressional district map that increases Republicans’ advantage. If the legal case fails to resolve, the map will remain in effect until 2031. (Photo: Susan Tebben/Ohio Capital Journal)
The sound of the gavel being put down had barely faded away before Ohioans at Friday’s meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission expressed their outrage over the adopted congressional map and the process of adopting it.
While Republicans were heavily criticized for having ultimate control over the legislature and the redistricting process as the majority party, Democrats did not emerge unscathed.
Following the meeting, attendee Katy Shanahan spoke directly with the committee’s co-chair, Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati.
“Nickie and Dani, you should be ashamed of yourself for allowing this to be written in your name,” Shanahan shouted as she was seemingly led out of the House finance hearing room.
The anger followed a unanimous committee vote to approve a district map that increases Republicans’ advantage in the state, giving them an advantage in 12 of 15 congressional districts.
Currently, Republicans hold 10 of Ohio’s 15 congressional districts. Despite the new Republican advantages, Democrats expressed confidence that they could retain their current five seats.
Members of the public who watched the process unfold through years of confusion — even after a 2018 constitutional amendment that sought to reform the process and make it more clear — branded the map an insult and Democrats who voted for it as a “sellout.”
Catherine Turcer, executive director of the voting rights group Common Cause in Ohio, called the trial a clear sham and a “dog and pony show,” saying commission members on both sides of the aisle opposed the constitutionally required process by failing to debate and engage the public during the process.
“They could have corrected these maps, they could have had hearings throughout the month,” Turcer told the Capital Journal.
“Instead, they just did everything in secret, negotiated in secret, and it was a huge disappointment to all the members.”
An Ohio-based anti-gerrymandering group introduced its own map proposal earlier this year and backed a Democratic proposal that would divide the state into eight Republican-leaning districts and seven Democratic-leaning districts.
After all was said and done last week, the coalition concluded that the map adopted by the commission was “even more rigged than 14 years and two anti-gerrymandering reforms.”
The coalition said Democrats have “hung Ohio voters out to dry” by agreeing to districts that “dilute the political power of communities of color in our state.”
Isaacsohn and Antonio argued that they did what they could to stop the gerrymandering they saw in their state, but they also argued that five districts that were deemed safely Democratic in the map adopted in 2022 were still competitive on the new map.
“As in our previous map, Democrats still have a narrow path, winning four to five seats along these lines,” Antonio told the media after the vote.
“It was our only way to preserve our representation in Congress and the votes of Ohioans.”
Antonio’s committee co-chair, state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, acknowledged that the map could be negative or positive for Republicans, depending on the candidates and campaigns going forward.
“You don’t have to squint very hard at the map to see where Republicans might have a better chance of succeeding,” Stewart said.
“You don’t have to squint very hard to see where we have a climb, maybe if the election season is bad for our party, but overall I think it’s a good map.”
(Photo: Susan Tebben, Ohio Capital Journal)
Isaacsohn pointed to “the reality of where our state’s leadership stands” and explained why the two Democrats chose to vote on the map, which they saw as “the best path to … making sure Ohioans have as many competitive congressional districts as possible.”
“The choice was to eliminate all three members of Congress or maintain their ability to run and win in 2026. We chose to make sure Democrats could run in all three elected districts,” Isaacsohn said, referring to the 1st, 9th and 13th districts, which are currently held by U.S. Reps. Greg Landsman, Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes, respectively.
According to Alex Linser, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, Landsman’s seat could become “one of the most competitive seats in the country” in the next term due to new districts.
Democrats in the district are ready to get to work before the next midterm elections, even though the county has been “disenfranchised by two districts,” he said.
“The whole situation is very disappointing, but we are where we are and we have to look to the future,” Linser told the Capital Journal on Monday.
Democratic leaders on the committee received support from Democratic National Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene, who praised them for “negotiations to prevent an even more outrageous gerrymander.”
“This compromise keeps us on track to regaining the House majority, and we will continue to win across Ohio because voters know House Democrats are fighting for them,” DelBene said in a statement.
Republicans were also shamed during the trial for what anti-gerrymandering advocates saw as a lack of action and a lack of interest in keeping the public in the process.
They defended the process, saying the bipartisan support for the map proved the process worked as intended.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, who co-authored the redistricting reform legislation, said the commission conducted a “fair and open process.”
He added that the new map, which will run through 2031, provides “long-term certainty for congressional district boundaries.”
Stewart said the Ohio House Republican caucus is “pleased” to have 12 districts “where Republicans have a very good chance of being successful.”
“I think if you compare it to the map we have now, it satisfies a lot of the appetites of a very strong Republican caucus, not only here but also in Washington, among our delegation,” Stewart said.
The committee’s cross-party support blocks any attempts to organize a referendum that would allow the public to vote on whether to keep the map.
However, legal challenges and a future ballot initiative to reform redistricting remain outstanding.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever passed a map that didn’t result in someone taking a complaint to court,” Stewart said.
“I think when you look at a map that meets all the requirements of the (state) constitution, I think it would be a very uphill climb, and we’re not concerned about whether any such lawsuit would be successful.”
(Photo: Susan Tebben/Ohio Capital Journal)
Even as the commission prepared to vote on the map last week, Antonio said the system under which the vote took place was “broken” and Isaacsohn said Democrats “don’t control this process here in Ohio,” leading to hand-tied negotiations.
They both agreed that the only way to improve would be to return to the ballot box.
Last year, Ohioans witnessed an attempt at a citizen-led redistricting process that would have eliminated the Ohio Redistricting Commission led by elected officials and appointed a vetted panel of Ohioans to do the job.
The initiative faced stiff competition from a counter-campaign that also claimed that a “no” vote on the initiative would end gerrymandering.
Republicans on the Ohio Board of Elections, led by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who opposed the amendment, wrote voting language into the proposal, saying it would involve gerrymandering.
Ultimately, the effort was a failure, with many voters expressing confusion about the ballot language.
Turcer was a leader in the campaign to pass the previous ballot initiative.
She said she and others learned a lot from this campaign and plan to try again once they have taken the appropriate amount of time to organize and strategize.
“We’re all going to have to pick up our notes, but not right away,” Turcer said.
Regardless of political party, the latest actions have shown Turcer that “these people actually cannot be trusted to create equitable districts.”
When asked about a legal challenge to the congressional map, Antonio said she would not lead the impeachment but “it will happen.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
