Ohio lawmakers pass new congressional map after reaching an unexpected deal

Ohio Republican and Democratic lawmakers are set to agree to a deal on a new congressional map that would give a slight, but not overwhelming, boost to the GOP.

Ohio Republican and Democratic lawmakers unanimously approved a new congressional map that would give a slight, but not overwhelming, boost to the GOP ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

At a meeting Friday morning, members of the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission approved the proposed map, which was released on Thursday as part of an unexpected deal. The map shifted two Democratic-held districts to the right and one to the left while also maintaining 10 districts that favor Republicans and two that are Democratic strongholds. Punchbowl News was first to report details of the deal.

Suzan DelBene, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said “this is not a fair map for Ohio voters,” but praised Democratic legislators for “negotiating to prevent an even more egregious gerrymander.”

“This compromise keeps us on the path to taking back the House Majority and we’ll continue to win across Ohio because voters know it’s House Democrats who are fighting for them,” DelBene said in a statement.

The new map came as a surprise to many observers. Democrats largely expected the constitutionally mandated redistricting commission to reach a stalemate, as it did in 2021. If the commission failed to settle on a new map ahead of the 2026 elections, responsibility for setting congressional boundaries would have fallen back to the Republican-controlled Legislature, which could have drawn an aggressively gerrymandered map. If that happened, Democrats had threatened to pursue a statewide referendum that could have resulted in voters blocking the map from going into effect.