State lawmakers will miss their first deadline for Congressional redistricting, meaning the Ohio Redistricting Commission must reconvene, facing an Oct. 31 deadline.
For the second time this year, the state’s Joint Redistricting Committee met Tuesday morning, for almost three hours of testimony by legislators and citizens. Most of it centered on a map drawn by Democrats with virtually no chance of going to a floor vote, signaling the legislature is far away from any consensus on district boundaries.
“We asked time and time again, where are your maps, show us your maps,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) told reporters after committee.
Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the Ohio House and Senate, have not brought forward their own map.
“There’s not a map that I know of,” chair Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) said. “We’re conducting hearings, as we’re required to do, and that’s where we’re at right now.”
The Ohio Constitution requires a 60% majority of the General Assembly to pass a plan by the end of the month. Now, absent one, the Ohio Redistricting Commission takes over. The seven-member commission skews right, but passage of a plan would need both Democrats on board by Oct. 31.
If that fails, legislators alone take over again and face a final deadline of Nov. 30. In this case, they only need a straight-line vote of 50% of the General Assembly, but are under stricter requirements of how districts can be drawn.
“We are following the process, as you know. We will go through the process and we will follow it through to the end of November,” chair Sen. Jane Timken (R-Jackson Twp.) said.
The Democratic map, according to analysis of historical voter data from 2016 through 2024, has eight districts that lean red and seven districts that lean blue in an evenly-matched year.
Democrats have said that is fair because that mirrors the 55% to 45% breakdown of the 2024 election in Ohio, between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Their GOP colleagues have countered that doesn’t align with statewide voter statistics.
“Again, the word fairness is not in the (Ohio) Constitution, correct?” Timken asked Antonio during the hearing, to which committee attendees broke out into laughter.
“I can tell you about other things it’s not in there either (for) but that’s a discussion for another day,” Antonio said.
Ohio was always due for this mid-decade redraw because of 2018 reforms to law, but now, the state is another one Trump and national Republicans are eyeing for more friendly seats. Democrats may lose as many as three of their five seats, a worst-case map for them.
