Ohio Republicans Gain Ground in Push for More Seats in Congress

Ohio is primed to become the latest Republican-led state to redraw its congressional map to boost the party’s chances of keeping control of the House of Representative in next year’s midterm elections.

Republicans, who currently hold 10 of Ohio’s 15 seats in Congress, appeared to have struck an 11th-hour deal with Democrats that would give the Republican Party much — but not all — of what it wanted: an electoral map that tilts red in 12 of the state’s 15 districts. The map is expected to be approved Friday morning by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, the last day it can approve a map before state law requires the issue to be kicked back to the Legislature.

The map was presented on Thursday afternoon at a hastily called commission meeting, during which members of the commission offered no response to more than a dozen speakers who excoriated both Republicans and Democrats for backroom dealing that produced a map they considered rigged.

“You are like foxes guarding the hen houses and Ohio voters continue to be the hens,” said Michael Ahern, who spoke to the commission wearing a baseball cap bearing the first three words of the Constitution, “We The People.” The meeting took place without Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, who holds one of the seven seats on the commission.

The map — which was not made public until after the meeting started — improves Republicans’ odds of picking up two more seats, though not the three they had set out to capture.

For the new map to pass, the two Democrats on the commission — Nickie Antonio, the Senate minority leader, and Dani Isaacsohn, the House minority leader — would have to vote in favor of it when the commission reconvenes on Friday.