By DAVID A. LIEB, OLIVIA DIAZ and MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
A Republican-dominated Ohio panel adopted new U.S. House districts on Friday that could boost the GOP’s chances of winning two additional seats in next year’s elections and aid President Donald Trump’s efforts to hold on to a slim congressional majority.
The action by the Ohio Redistricting Commission comes as Trump has been urging Republican-led states to reshape their U.S. House districts in an attempt to win more seats. But unlike in other states, Ohio’s redistricting was required by the state constitution because the current districts were adopted after the 2020 census without bipartisan support.
Ohio joins Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers already have revised their congressional districts.
Meanwhile, senators in the Democrat-led Virginia General Assembly were expected to vote Friday on advancing a proposed constitutional amendment that would let them temporarily bypass a bipartisan commission and redraw congressional districts to their advantage. That scheduled vote comes after the Virginia House passed the same resolution Wednesday.
Trump kicked off the redistricting fray this summer by urging Republican-led states to redraw voting districts ahead of next year’s congressional elections. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina already have done so. Voters in Democratic-led California are deciding on new districts.
The political parties are in an intense battle, because Democrats need to gain just three seats in next year’s election to win control of the House and gain the power to impede Trump’s agenda.
Republicans already hold 10 of the 15 congressional seats in Ohio. The new map could boost Republican chances in districts currently held by Democratic Reps. Greg Landsman in Cincinnati and Marcy Kaptur near Toledo, an area that voted for Trump in last year’s presidential election. Kaptur won a 22nd term last fall by about 2,400 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, while Landsman was reelected with more than 54% of the vote.
In Virginia, the proposed constitutional amendment being considered by senators is in its early stages. After Friday, the resolution would need to pass the General Assembly again next year, then go before voters by way of a referendum.
Along with California, Virginia would be one of the few states with a Democratic-led legislature to enter the national redistricting battle.
“There’s a double standard for Democrats in authority that somehow we have to lay down while Donald Trump seizes power that we’ve never seen, and the Republicans run the play,” Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said this week.
Through the constitutional amendment, Virginia’s General Assembly would have the power to create a new congressional map only when other states do so between now and 2030. Democrats have not unveiled their planned map.
Asked about whether his party has begun drafting new districts, Scott said: “You’re not naive.”
The developments come as Virginia has statewide elections Tuesday, where all 100 seats in the House of Delegates are on the ballot. Democrats would need to keep their slim majority in the lower chamber to advance the constitutional amendment next year.
The party’s bullish approach to redistricting reflects members’ confidence in holding onto power. There are roughly a dozen Republican-held seats that are vulnerable to being flipped this year, with Democrats vying to expand their legislative edge.
Conservatives blasted Democrats for undoing efforts to put the maps in the hands of a bipartisan commission, arguing the proceedings went against a Virginia custom of bipartisanship and decorum.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents a competitive seat, said this week that “there’s partisan games in Washington that it seems like the partisan games have now trickled down here in Richmond.”
Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.