Ohio lawmakers missed their first deadline to redistrict their congressional maps mid-decade.
Ohio lawmakers needed to pass a map with at least 60% support in each chamber and at least 50% support from Democrats by Sept. 30. This deadline was not met, as Democrats who would lose seats have not been on board with the push to give Republicans more seats.
Republicans did not introduce a proposal by this deadline either.
In 2018, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment that required lawmakers to negotiate in good faith and pass a bipartisan map by Sept. 30 before the process went to the redistricting commission.
The Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting met on Tuesday, the day of the deadline. The meeting began with Democratic Senate Leader Nickie Antonio supporting the Democratic map proposal, which remains the only congressional map that has been introduced by either side.
That map included eight Republican-leaning districts and seven Democratic-leaning districts in the congressional delegation, which they said was based on the voting results of the last federal election.
In recent statewide elections, Republicans have won 55% to 45% over Democrats in Ohio. However, the state’s current congressional map delegation has 10 Republicans to five Democrats.
Republican leaders in Ohio have said that in their new maps, they want at least 12 of the 15 districts to be Republican.
Now, the GOP-controlled redistricting commission, which consists of state lawmakers and leaders, will take over the map redistricting process. At least four members, including two Democrats, must approve it by Oct. 31.
If that fails, it will be sent back to the legislature.
REDISTRICTING WARS THREATEN TO MAKE CONGRESS MORE PARTISAN
If that is not met, a new congressional map can be passed with a simple majority in the statehouse, but that map would have to be replaced after six years.
President Donald Trump had initially urged Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s map mid-decade to create a cushion to retain the GOP’s razor-thin House majority. This move has led several other Republican-led statehouses to push redistricting their states to put more Republican-leaning congressional districts on the map.
