Ohio’s Republican and Democratic legislative leaders have agreed on a new congressional map that tilts decidedly toward the GOP but stops short of the full-scale gerrymander Republicans could have passed on their own.

The map improves Republicans’ chances of flipping Ohio’s three most competitive congressional districts which all are held by Democrats. Currently, Republicans hold 10 Ohio congressional seats while Democrats hold five.

Republicans and Democrats unveiled the map during a packed public hearing on Thursday at the Statehouse. Another hearing is scheduled for Friday, at which it’s expected to be approved. If that happens, the map would remain in place until the 2032 election.

On balance, Democrats would be agreeing to the following:

• Negotiate away the already Republican-leaning 9th Congressional District represented by longtime U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur
• Redraw the solidly Democratic 1st Congressional District, represented by Cincinnati U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, into a Republican-leaning district that Landsman still might be able to hold
• Preserve their chances of holding the competitive 13th District held by Akron U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes by making the toss-up district slightly more Democratic

Here is an image of the map produced by Daves Redistricting App, a free redistricting website. The map’s colors illustrate the results of the 2024 presidential election in each district, with darker shades of red indicating a larger vote share by President Donald Trump and darker shades of blue indicating the same for former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Under the proposed map, a plausible good electoral outcome for Democrats would mean Republicans hold 11 congressional districts and Democrats four, with Kaptur’s district even harder to hold than it is now.

Republicans, meanwhile, could position themselves to win as many as 12 of Ohio’s 15 seats. The deal would also block Democrats from pursuing a statewide referendum that might otherwise keep the current map in place through 2026.

The new map definitely benefits Republicans, but still stops short of a go-for-broke approach the party has taken nationally under pressure from President Donald Trump and his allies.

The general outline of the new map was described to Signal by a source familiar with the deal. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Both meetings comes ahead of a Friday legal deadline, after which Republicans would no longer would require Democratic votes but lose their ability to instantly block the repeal campaign.

D.J. Byrnes, a political blogger in Columbus, was first to report the bipartisan deal.

Legislative leaders strike deal

The handshake deal was reached this week by Republican House Speaker Matt Huffman, Senate President Rob McColley and Democratic House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio.

The four state legislative leaders control four of the seven seats on the Ohio Redistricting Commission, and could approve the map on their own. Also sitting on the commission are three additional Republicans: Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Auditor Keith Faber.

Huffman, McColley and Antonio all told reporters on Wednesday that a deal was getting close, which the Signal Statewide newsletter noted.

“I think there’s genuine, real discussions. And I think if that does end up coming to fruition, I hope people will write about how the system worked and not how the system failed,” Huffman said Wednesday morning.

Antonio, meanwhile, confirmed to reporters that negotiations grew much more productive this week.

“I do believe the possibility of [a deal] exists at this point to the level that I can have that information, not having a conversation with President Trump myself,” Antonio said Wednesday afternoon.

If the map is approved, it would resemble the compromise Democrats made with Republicans over state legislative district maps in 2023.

Signal has reached out to spokespeople for all four legislative leaders. Some have declined to comment while others haven’t responded.

Reported map deal draws immediate partisan backlash on social media

Details of the maps trickled out Wednesday night, drawing immediate backlash from both sides.

Trump has been unusually explicit in telling state legislators in Republican-controlled states to gerrymander their congressional maps to reduce Democrats’ chances of winning the House in the November 2026 election. Republicans have responded by pushing to approve pro-Republican maps in Texas, Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana.

Pro-Trump figures such as Jack Posobiec blasted the deal on X, calling it “a bad deal for Republicans.” GOP strategist Andy Surabian, an ally of Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr., reposted the comment.

“The Dems want this deal because it’s a bad deal for Republicans,” Posobiec said. “The GOP members should not do this deal and should instead let the legislature draw the map”

A source familiar with Ohio redistricting described the White House as angry over the bipartisan agreement.

“This map is great for Rob McColley and terrible for Donald Trump,” said the source, referencing the growing belief that McColley soon will launch a campaign for the 9th Congressional District. “It’s shocking.”

Democratic and progressive activists similar piled on to the deal. The dynamic is similar to the backlash Democrats who approved the last bipartisan redistricting deal have seen over their votes. Earlier in redistricting negotiations, Democrats proposed an 8 Republican, seven Democrat map favored by activists. They said it most fairly represented Ohio’s status as a Republican-leaning, but not deep-red state.

David Pepper, a former Ohio Democratic Party chairman who lives in Cincinnati, called the proposed map an “egregious suppression of the Cincinnati electorate” in an X post on Wednesday night.

Katy Shanahan, a progressive redistricting activist, accused Democrats of “undermining our democracy.”

Shanahan and other activists who packed Thursday’s meeting panned the map, with one getting dragged out by Statehouse sergeant-at-arms after disrupting the meeting.

“What we’re seeing here today is a gerrymandered map,” said Bria Bennett, leader of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a prominent progressive group that’s sued over previous maps. “It’s a treacherous dereliction of duty and a direct violation of your constitutional responsibility to draw fair districts.”

Key Republicans predict bipartisan vote

Two Republicans on the redistricting commission — Gov. Mike DeWine and state Rep. Brian Stewart — touted the new map as a bipartisan achievement. Stewart predicted the map will pass on Friday with “yes votes” from all four legislative leaders — two Republicans and two Democrats.

But DeWine also said it’s a good deal for Republicans, since they could win as many as 13 districts.

“Those are pretty darn good numbers, and I think it lessens a chance there’ll be a referendum that our side might lose,” DeWine said.

Stewart avoided answering specific questions about the district lines, such as explaining why the Columbus area — a major population center and growing Democratic stronghold — was broken apart into several Republican districts, including one that spans to the West Virginia border.

Democrats were less positive about the map, describing it to reporters as a necessary compromise in the face of worse options. They left without taking questions.

“We have a broken system,” Antonio said. “It’s the hand of cards we were dealt.”

Two statewide Republican elected officials — Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Auditor Keith Faber — said they were unsure how they’ll vote on the map. Both are running for different statewide offices next year and must first pass through Republican primary elections.

“I need to sleep on it,” LaRose said as he left the meeting.

More details on the districts

Using the 2024 presidential election as the benchmark, Republicans are favored on paper to win 12 of the 15 districts under the new map. The same is true of the official partisan index used by the redistricting commission, which incorporates the results of all statewide partisan elections between 2016 and 2024.

The biggest change is the First Congressional District in the Cincinnati area, which Landsman has represented since 2022, with the district trending more Democratic over time. Republicans now are slightly favored, although the district should be competitive.

The 9th District becomes slightly more Republican, going from a district that Trump won by 7 percentage points to one Trump won by 10 percentage points. The change will make it even harder for Kaptur — who survived tough reelection campaigns in 2022 and 2024 — to keep her seat.

The 13th District, which Sykes has represented since 2022, meanwhile becomes slightly Democratic, although remains winnable for Republicans.

Here’s how the voters within the new districts voted voted in the 2024 presidential election, had the lines existed then.

Note: An earlier version of this map inverted the results for the 12th District. It has been corrected.

Here is the map’s official partisan scoring, which incorporates all partisan statewide election results between 2016 and 2024.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the new congressional map is expected to be approved on Oct. 30. It actually is expected to be approved on Oct. 31, and receive a hearing on Oct. 30.

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