COLUMBUS, Ohio — As Ohio lawmakers attempt to nail down U.S. congressional district boundaries for the next decade, Ohio House Democrats released their proposed map. 

What You Need To Know

  • As required by law, Ohio must choose new U.S. House district boundaries before the 2022 election

  • After Republicans unveiled their proposed boundaries, House Democrats released their proposed district lines Friday evening

  • The Democrats’ version would likely result in fewer safe GOP seats than the Republicans’ version

  • States are required to redraw district boundaries every 10 years to account for shifts in population

The Democrats’ proposed map would have six seats considered safe for Republicans, four that would be considered safe for Democrats and five considered competitive. The boundaries dictate who voters would choose to represent them in Washington in the U.S. House. 

Ohio is seeing its number of congressional districts reduced from 16 to 15 due to changes in population in the 2020 census. 

For the past 10 years, Republicans have had a 12-4 advantage in Congress even though only a little more than half of the population has voted for Republicans statewide. Despite that, the GOP's new proposals call for eight safe Republican districts, two Democratic safe districts and five toss-ups. However, Dave's Redistricting, a redistricting analysis tool, says those five districts lean Republican. 

Democrats claim the maps proposed by state Republicans would result in a 13-2 GOP advantage in the state. 

“Voters are dismayed by the brazen partisanship of the Republican maps released this week, which intentionally and unduly favor Republican candidates 13-2. That’s textbook gerrymandering,” said Assistant Minority Whip Rep. Richard D. Brown (D-Canal Winchester), one of the sponsors of the Democratic proposal.

The Republicans said their plans would keep cities like the three C's together while grouping their surrounding counties in with rural districts. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Whip Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said his caucus' plan is constitutional because Ohio's 11.7 million people are equally divided.

"This map truly balances 'one person, one vote' with 13 districts having exactly 786,630 people and two districts having 786,629. That is as close as we can get as possible to 'one person, one vote," said McColley.

Spectrum News 1 reporters Josh Rultenberg and Justin Boggs contributed to this report.

Related Stories