Ohio has a new congressional map. The Ohio Redistricting Commission adopted it by a unanimous 7-0 vote on October 31, 2025, and it will govern U.S. House elections in the state through 2031. The plan replaces the boundaries used in 2022 and 2024 and is designed to move the state’s congressional delegation from a 10-5 Republican-to-Democratic split to a 12-3 Republican advantage across Ohio’s 15 districts.
The map is already in force. County boards of elections were directed to reprogram voter registration systems by December 12, 2025, and candidates filed for the May 5, 2026, primary under the new lines, with a February 4, 2026, filing deadline. No legal challenges have been filed.
What the Map Changes
Analysts at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics described the redraw as “relatively minor changes” to the previous boundaries, but the political effect concentrates on three Democratic-held seats.
Ohio’s 9th District, held by Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the Toledo area, moved from a toss-up to leaning Republican. The district sheds portions of Toledo and takes in more Republican territory in northwest Ohio. Donald Trump’s margin in the redrawn district expands from roughly 6.5 points to 10.5 points, and the partisan breakdown sits at about 54.5% Republican.
Ohio’s 1st District, held by Rep. Greg Landsman in the Cincinnati area, moved from leaning Democratic to a toss-up. The redraw drops some Democratic-friendly areas and adds all of heavily Republican Clinton County along with redder portions of western Hamilton County. Trump would have carried the redrawn district by about 2.5 points in 2024.
Ohio’s 13th District, held by Rep. Emilia Sykes in the Akron area, moved the other direction. Adding Kent State University in Portage County and other swaps made the district bluer, shifting it from a toss-up to leaning Democratic with a roughly 52-48 lean.
Two districts were left essentially untouched: the 11th, represented by Shontel Brown in Cleveland, which holds the largest Democratic advantage at roughly 78%, and the 3rd in Columbus. The 4th District, represented by Jim Jordan, holds the largest Republican edge at about 72%. The 10th District, held by Republican Mike Turner, shifted from Trump +6 to Trump +8.
The 12-3 figure describes the map’s design, not a locked outcome. The Center for Politics assessment noted Democrats retain a plausible path to holding all five of their current seats depending on the political environment, and three Republican-held seats — the 7th (Max Miller), the 10th (Mike Turner), and the 15th (Mike Carey) — were identified as potential Democratic targets in a strong wave year, though all remain rated safely Republican under normal conditions.
Why Both Democrats Voted Yes
The commission’s two Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio and House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, voted for a map they publicly criticized. Antonio called it “the best of a worst-case scenario.” She told the commission that Republicans had threatened to send the process to the legislature, where a GOP supermajority would likely have passed a map creating 13 Republican seats and just two Democratic ones. “Democratic representation in Ohio would have been decimated,” she said. “I understand and appreciate the anger we have heard from Ohioans today in this room because you know what? I’m angry too.”
Isaacsohn framed the choice the same way. “When the choice was between losing three of our strongest members of Congress — and make no mistake, that was the choice — when we need them so desperately to be there for President Trump’s last two years in office and in keeping their districts for 2026, there was only one path,” he said.
The unanimous vote also carried a procedural consequence that shaped the calculation. Under Ohio’s constitution, a map passed by the commission with bipartisan support cannot be subjected to a public referendum. Had the legislature passed a map instead, opponents could have mounted a ballot challenge that might have blocked its use in 2026.
Republican leaders described the outcome differently. Governor Mike DeWine and Senate President Rob McColley called it a genuine compromise. Speaker Matt Huffman called it “a bipartisan, constitutional map” providing “long-term certainty to congressional district lines through 2031.”
How Ohio Got Here
Ohio’s congressional redistricting runs on a three-step system created by a 2018 constitutional amendment. The legislature has until September 30 to pass a map by a three-fifths supermajority that includes at least half the members of each major party. If that fails, the seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission takes over and has until October 31 to approve a map with votes from at least two members of each party. If the commission also fails, the process returns to the legislature, which can pass a map by a simple majority by November 30. Bipartisan maps last ten years; simple-majority maps last only two election cycles.
After the 2020 Census, the Republican-controlled legislature and commission produced congressional and state legislative maps that the Ohio Supreme Court repeatedly struck down as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. In Adams v. DeWine, decided in January 2022, the court found the legislature’s congressional map “unduly favors the Republican Party and disfavors the Democratic Party” in violation of Article XIX of the Ohio Constitution. Expert testimony showed Republicans were likely to win 12 of 15 seats despite winning roughly 53% of the statewide vote in recent elections. The court struck down a second commission-drawn plan two months later in Nieman v. LaRose. Despite the invalidations, the court allowed the deficient maps to be used in 2022 because candidate filing deadlines were imminent, and the cases were ultimately dismissed in November 2023 without compliant maps ever being adopted.
Because no compliant ten-year map existed, the 2018 amendment’s mid-decade provision required the full three-step process to repeat in 2025. The legislature missed its September 30 deadline after Republicans rejected a Democratic proposal, sending the task to the commission. The commission met for the first time on October 21 and adjourned without introducing a map. On October 31, co-chair and state Rep. Brian Stewart introduced the plan that was voted on the same day. The commission heard testimony from 59 individuals, with many members of the public criticizing the process.
Voters had one more chance to change the system before the 2025 process began. A coalition called Citizens Not Politicians, led by former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, placed Issue 1 on the November 2024 ballot. It would have replaced the seven-member politician-controlled commission with a 15-member citizens panel of five Republicans, five Democrats, and five independents, selected by a bipartisan panel of retired judges, with nine votes required to approve a map. Ohio voters rejected Issue 1, leaving the existing framework in place.
What the Map Means for the 2026 Elections
The two most closely watched races sit in the districts where the map hurt Democratic incumbents the most.
In the 9th District, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress, is seeking a 23rd term. She won her primary unopposed and faces former state Rep. Derek Merrin in a rematch. Kaptur beat Merrin by just 2,382 votes in 2024, and the redrawn district is roughly four points more Republican. The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up. Kaptur reported $3.3 million raised to Merrin’s $751,000 as of mid-2026.
In the 1st District, Rep. Greg Landsman won his primary with about 73% of the vote and faces Republican Eric Conroy, an Air Force veteran and former CIA case officer endorsed by Donald Trump. Cook initially rated the race a toss-up; other analysts have called it lean Democratic. Landsman reported $3.7 million on hand to Conroy’s $850,000, but the Congressional Leadership Fund has reserved $4 million in the Cincinnati media market for the general election.
Whether the Map Can Still Be Challenged
As of mid-2026, no legal challenges have been filed against the new congressional or state legislative maps, and several factors point to none arriving in time to matter for 2026. The unanimous commission vote deprived potential challengers of their most obvious argument, that the map was pushed through without bipartisan support. Ohio Republican Party Secretary Tony Schroeder has said there is no short-term expectation of legal changes to the state’s maps, and the Brennan Center for Justice confirmed that litigation from the prior cycle has concluded.
The forum matters too. Ohio’s congressional map is subject to review only by the Ohio Supreme Court, which now consists of six Republican justices and one Democrat, Jennifer Brunner, following the November 2024 elections. That composition contrasts with the 4-3 court that struck down the earlier maps in 2022.
A separate development in federal law also narrowed the routes a challenger could take. In Louisiana v. Callais, decided April 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court raised the bar for plaintiffs challenging maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The 6-3 decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, held that plaintiffs must show intentional racial discrimination rather than merely discriminatory effects, and that states may draw districts for partisan advantage without triggering Voting Rights Act liability so long as they do not intentionally discriminate based on race. Justice Elena Kagan warned in dissent that the decision renders Section 2 “all but a dead letter.” The Callais framework could theoretically open the door for challenges based on how racial data was used in Ohio’s mapmaking, but with no filed litigation and a friendly state court, the practical effect for the current cycle appears minimal.
The ACLU of Ohio, which spearheaded earlier challenges, has called the 2025 map “out of touch with the actual make-up of Ohio voters,” noting that the 86% Republican seat share far exceeds the party’s 55% share of the 2024 presidential vote. The organization continues to advocate for a citizen-led redistricting process but has not announced new legal action. Under the state constitution, the map adopted in 2025 is intended to remain in effect through 2031.