The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Ohio Democrats increased the number of U.S. House district seats they hold by one in the state’s midterm election Tuesday, though Republicans still hold 10 out of the 15 seats.
Ohio lost one U.S. Congressional seat from the latest Census, and after Tuesday’s election, the delegation will go from 12-4 Republican-to-Democrat to 10-5 Republican-to-Democrat. The results do not become official until they are certified by bipartisan county boards of elections.
Notably, Cincinnati Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot lost his reelection bid to Democrat Greg Landsman in Ohio U.S. Congressional District 1, while Toledo Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur won hers over Republican J.R. Majewski in Ohio U.S. Congressional District 9.
In the two open-seat races, Democratic candidate Emilia Sykes defeated Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in Ohio U.S. House District 13, while Republican Max Miller defeated Democrat Matthew Diemer in Ohio U.S. House District 7.
Candidates competed under a map declared to be an unconstitutional gerrymander by a bipartisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court.
Ohio Republican legislative leaders have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court the bipartisan Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the state’s Republican-drawn U.S. Congressional map used for the 2022 Election is unconstitutional.
The map was passed along party lines in a vote of the Ohio Redistricting Commission (ORC) after the Republican supermajority General Assembly failed to produce a second map when the first map passed by it was also declared unconstitutional. Ohio voters passed redistricting reform to stop congressional gerrymandering in 2018 with nearly 75% in favor.
The future of Ohio’s congressional maps largely hinges on whether the U.S. Supreme Court takes up Ohio Republicans’ case; control over the Ohio Statehouse and the three statewide elected officials on the Ohio Redistricting Commission — governor, auditor, and secretary of state; and the new make-up of the Ohio Supreme Court come January.
In the unofficial results Tuesday night, Ohio Republicans have held majority control over both the House and Senate chambers of the Ohio Statehouse. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and Auditor Keith Faber, also have won reelection. And all three Republicans won the Ohio Supreme Court races.
