Battleground - Ohio: The 4-Year Congressional Map
Battleground is a reader-supported publication. Consider supporting the newsletter through Buy Me A Coffee. Ohio: The 4-Year Congressional MapHope you like redistricting, cause we'll be doing more of it in 2025.
Hey there! Just a reminder to complete the 2022 Battleground Reader Survey. As we move into election season I want to ensure I’m serving you with the content you need and enjoy! Click here to take the survey. Hi all! Ohio holds its primary elections this week. Tomorrow I’ll be focusing on the election and its candidates but today I want to revisit Ohio’s convoluted redistricting process as its turning out to be one of the most unique redistricting stories across the nation. What’s Going on in Ohio?To get you up to speed, Republicans fully control the congressional redistricting process in Ohio and meandered through the process throughout last fall: no Democrats supported maps for the required three-fifths vote and a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to draw maps approved by the legislature. These two failures passed the pen back to Republicans who created new maps that were passed by a party-line vote. Barely two days after the new congressional map was enacted, a lawsuit was filed by voters challenging the map. The Ohio Supreme Court threw out this map on January 14 as it violated provisions outlined in a recently passed constitutional amendment aimed to increase fairness in the state’s redistricting process. Republicans went back to the drawing board and returned with a second map, shown above. This map faces further scrutiny by the Ohio Supreme Court, however a federal court stepped in to cement the usage of these districts for the 2022 elections. I Thought Districts Lasted for 10 Years…?Typically, they do! But Ohio’s new constitutional amendment holds a special clause for any congressional maps passed by a simple majority vote:
Due to this clause, Ohio legislators will have to completely redo this process in time for the 2026 midterms. (And they may be forced to do so even sooner if courts eventually deem the districts unconstitutional.) District BreakdownOhio’s new districts are a mess, both for the 2022 congressional elections and beyond. To start, the state lost one congressional seat due to lagging population growth and naturally Republicans axed a previously Democratic-leaning district. This takes the Democratic party down to only four seats leaning in their direction (27% of total seats) despite the fact that roughly 43% of Ohio voters supported Democrats in the last three congressional elections. The clearest problem with this map is the way it splits counties across the state, something the constitutional amendment explicitly prohibits unless absolutely necessary. The new map splits a whopping 13 counties; only 3 of those are too large to be represented wholly in a single district (each holding one of the Three C’s cities.) It becomes almost comical when looking at OH-15: despite stretching across six different counties, the district only holds one county in its entirety. The map also displays a bias toward rural voters with the way lines were drawn. Mapmakers carved up most of the state’s metropolitan areas to create districts that stretch from cities and suburbs far into the countryside, capturing enough rural voters to outnumber urban voters. For example, Lorain county, holding much of the suburbs lying west of Cleveland, is separated from nearly all of its neighboring counties and thrown into a heavily rural OH-5. These roughly 200,000 suburban voters are outnumbered by a whopping ~500,000 rural voters who live in counties with population densities six times lower than that of Lorain. Complicating CampaignsI’ll dive deeper into this tomorrow but Ohio’s never-ending redistricting process has caused major headaches for candidates and their early campaign strategies. For much of 2022, candidate didn’t quite know for certain what the districts they’d be running in would look like. Even worse, new challengers were uncertain if they’d be facing a formidable incumbent running for re-election. The drama is most pronounced in the Republican primary for the new OH-7. Republican Bob Gibbs currently represents Ohio’s seventh congressional district, much of which is about to become the new OH-12. To make matters worse, one of his challengers has been endorsed by Donald Trump, turning the campaign into an incredibly expensive primary. Gibbs decided last month to cancel his campaign for re-election, several days after the candidate filing deadline. This means that Bob Gibbs will still appear on the primary ballot but votes for him will not be counted. (The state has been instructed to notify candidates about this at applicable polling places and in relevant absentee voting materials.) As I mentioned, tomorrow I’ll be taking a look at this week’s primary elections in Ohio and Indiana, with a special focus on candidates in uncontested races.. We must remember: democracy only works when voters have a choice! Leftover Links
A gift for me is a gift for you! Supporting Battleground unlocks paywalled content, feel free to Buy Me A Coffee or send to $battlegroundmaps via Cash app. |
Key phrases
Older messages
2022 Primary Elections Calendar
Thursday, April 28, 2022
The 2022 midterms begin with a Summer primary season. Find out when your state is holding its primary.
2022 Governors' Races Outlook
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Voters in 36 states (and three territories!) will vote on their governors this year.
2022 Senate Races Outlook
Monday, April 25, 2022
34 states will hold Senate races in the upcoming election cycle.
Redistricting Recap: 🚨Gerry's Watch🚨
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Your rundown of states still facing gerrymandering challenges to their new congressional districts.
Battleground 2022 Reader Survey
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Excited to hear your thoughts about how Battleground has grown in the past year!
You Might Also Like
The endless quest to replace alcohol
Friday, April 19, 2024
Plus: garbage e-books and more. Each week, a different Vox editor curates their favorite work that Vox has published across text, audio, and video. This week's recommendations are brought to you by
GeekWire Startups Weekly
Friday, April 19, 2024
News, analysis, insights from the Pacific NW startup ecosystem View this email in your browser Presented by CIBC Seattle tech vet calls rapidly growing 'AI Tinkerers' meetups the new '
Social Speak
Friday, April 19, 2024
Here's a love that does dare speak its name Social Speak By Caroline Crampton • 19 Apr 2024 View in browser View in browser The Formalisation Of Social Precarities Ambika Tandon, Aayush Rathi et al
AI education isn't just about tech know-how
Friday, April 19, 2024
+ wild turkeys disappearing
⚡️ How Google Pushes Phone Photography Past Its Limits
Friday, April 19, 2024
Plus: Microsoft's new AI makes convincing deepfakes worryingly easy.
Friday mailbag edition.
Friday, April 19, 2024
We get into our backlog of reader questions and cover a lot of ground. Friday mailbag edition. By Isaac Saul • 19 Apr 2024 View in browser View in browser Photo by Zeke Tucker / Unsplash Every now and
☕ Computer, take the wheel
Friday, April 19, 2024
Tech Brew takes a ride in a May Mobility AV. April 19, 2024 Tech Brew It's Friday. Tech Brew's Jordyn Grzelewski hopped into an autonomous minivan to get a feel for May Mobility's tech.
LEVER TIME: Democrats Will Not Tolerate Dissent
Friday, April 19, 2024
As part of a revamped and expanded weekly podcast series, David Sirota explores how the DNC crushed 2024 primary challengers — and might have hurt Biden's reelection chances. LEVER TIME: Democrats
Can anyone be neutral on Taylor Swift?
Friday, April 19, 2024
Plus: Dinner party etiquette, the ships saving the internet, and more April 19, 2024 View in browser Happy Friday! Or, rather: Happy Taylor Swift album release day to all who celebrate. I'm
Numlock News: April 19, 2024 • Antarctica, Counterfeits, Eisbock
Friday, April 19, 2024
By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Hipgnosis Over the past several years plenty of artists have cashed out by selling their catalogs to the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, including Journey, Justin Bieber,