The Ohio House of Representatives approved a redistricting map on Thursday that likely ensures that at least 12 of the state’s 15 congressional seats will be held by Republicans. The bill approving the map, passed by the legislature’s GOP majority, awaits the signature of Governor Mike DeWine, also a Republican.
Republicans outnumber Democrats in the Buckeye State – 947,027 to 836,080 – but the redrawn districts provide an advantage to the GOP that dwarfs differences in party registration. It divides counties that are Democratic strongholds – including the counties that contain Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati – into multiple pieces, thereby diluting urban voting power. The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the map an F grade.
“The Republicans in Ohio have done absolutely everything they can to maintain their unearned supermajorities … so they can maintain power without ever being accountable to the people in this state,” said state House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes. “It is not only harming our state, it is harming our democracy and devastating the public trust that people have in their government.”
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, columnist Paul Waldman describes how the new Ohio map is part of a nationwide gerrymandering effort waged by the GOP that is “as much of an assault on our democracy” as the January 6th riot at Capitol Hill.
Waldman highlights some of the most salient examples:
- In Texas, Republicans essentially eliminated electoral competition. Only one of the state’s 38 congressional districts will be competitive under the new map; 13 will be safely Democratic, and 24 will be safely Republican. If recent trends persist, the majority of the state’s voters will be voting for Democrats within a few years, but Republicans will still control nearly two-thirds of the House seats.
- In North Carolina, one of the most closely divided states in the country, Republicans drew maps that created 10 GOP seats, just three Democratic seats and one competitive seat.
- In Georgia, where Democrats recently won the presidential contest and two Senate races, state Republicans just released a map that would give them control of nine of the state’s 14 congressional districts. They essentially made it impossible for Rep. Lucy McBath, a prominent Black Democrat, to win reelection.
- In Utah, legislators rejected a map drawn by an independent commission in favor of one that divides Salt Lake County, which Joe Biden won, among four districts so that all will be Republican.
The New York Times summarizes:
A year before the polls open in the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans are already poised to flip at least five seats in the closely divided House thanks to redrawn district maps that are more distorted, more disjointed and more gerrymandered than any since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.
“In the 12 states that have completed the mapping process,” adds the Times “Republicans have gained an advantage for seats in Iowa, North Carolina, Texas and Montana, and Democrats have lost the advantage in districts in North Carolina and Iowa.”
MSNBC opinion columnist Hayes Brown argues that Democrats must abolish the filibuster and pass voting rights reform – including the end of partisan gerrymandering – in order to combat the GOP takeover.
“Pundits and the consulting class are busy arguing over whether Democrats should pass popular bills or show bipartisan restraint to stay in power,” Hayes writes. “Neither argument seems to accept that if voting rights legislation doesn’t also pass, the next 400-odd days may be the last chance Democrats have to have any role in legislating for the next decade.”