GOP Continues to Ignore Ohio’s Bipartisan Redistricting Process, Paving Way for Another Trump-Dictated Gerrymander

As state Rep. Brian Stewart (R), co-chair of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, gaveled its first hearing to a close — less than an hour after it began, and without Republicans even feigning an attempt to pass a bipartisan map as the Ohio constitution directs — the visitors’ gallery erupted into shouts of “shame!”

The commission heard testimony Tuesday from just two members — Sen. Nicki Antonio and Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, both Democrats. Under the state constitution, the Redistricting Commission must adopt a bipartisan congressional map by the end of this month. If it doesn’t, then the GOP-dominated state legislature can pass its own, partisan map.

And after Tuesday’s short hearing, that’s what looks likely to happen.

The Democrats all but begged their five Republican colleagues on the commission to take the 2018 constitutional amendment that created Ohio’s redistricting process seriously. So far, Republicans have declined to even offer their own map proposal. 

Isaacsohn, the minority leader in the Ohio House, urged the GOP to work with Democrats on the map proposal they introduced last month, which would give Republicans a 8-7 advantage. 

“House Bill 442 is not the only way to create fair districts worthy of Ohioans, and we would welcome the opportunity to engage with maps drawn by other members of this commission that meet the constitutional requirements,” Isaacsohn said.

“I look forward to this committee’s questions, but even more so, I look forward to reading, considering and discussing the majority’s redistricting proposal wherever and whenever they might choose to share it,” said Antonio. “But, for all our sake, but most importantly, for the voters, I hope it comes soon.”

Ohio currently sends 10 Republicans and five Democrats to the U.S. House under partisan maps adopted by the General Assembly in 2021. But in response to President Donald Trump’s calls for all-out partisan gerrymandering to maximize the GOP’s chances in the 2026 midterms, some state lawmakers want to push that ratio to 12-3 or even 13-2. That would take the Ohio House delegation from two-thirds Republican to 87% in a state where Trump won 55% of the vote in 2024. 

The Ohio General Assembly already passed on its chance to adopt a bipartisan map. Ohio’s redistricting process gives the legislature a shot, then a redistricting commission, and then, if both fail, allows state lawmakers to adopt a partisan map for four years (instead of 10). 

In her testimony, Antonio suggested that Ohio voters could respond to another, more egregious gerrymander by launching a referendum to overturn the maps and amend the redistricting process to give 2018’s attempted depoliticization real teeth, drawing applause from the crowd. 

As the meeting wrapped up, Antonio asked Stewart if there “is a plan for future meetings of this commission?”

With the commission’s deadline just 10 days away, Stewart said the scheduling details for additional meetings were still being hammered out. 

“Certainly we’re required to have additional meetings,” he said. “I think we have penciled in informally some dates that might work for that. And I think the plan is that hopefully by the end of the day, we would have a little more finality as to when those dates would be.”