Heading into 2026, Ohio's approved electoral map with two new Republican-leaning seats

Ohio redrew its electoral map for the 2026 midterm elections. The new map will add two Republican-leaning seats for the House of Representatives, while leaving Democrats with three fewer seats. Thus, the Buckeye State became the fourth state to redraw its map. The other three are Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, pending what happens with Indiana and Utah.

In Ohio, the task of redrawing the map falls to the Legislature. Under the state constitution, if no agreement is reached, the job goes to the Redistricting Commission, which has until Oct. 31 to vote and approve a map. The body has seven members, five Republicans and two Democrats. Mandatorily, the outcome must have the support of opposition members.

By the deadline, the Commission was able to approve a bipartisan map, which has twelve Republican-leaning seats and three Democratic-leaning seats. The new Republican-leaning seats are those belonging to Marcy Kaptur and Greg Landsman. In addition, other districts became bluer, such as that of Emilia Sykes, and others redder.

By opting for the commission's path, state Republicans secured the validity of this new map for the next ten years.

If the Redistricting Commission did not come to a bipartisan deal and the legislature did a 13-2 map, that map would very likely be subject to a referendum. Even if the referendum ultimately failed, the state constitution says we’d be stuck with the current 10R-5D map for 2026 if Democrats gather enough signatures to put the question on the ballot. That means for the remainder of President Trump’s term, we would have zero R pickup opportunities. Instead, with this map (and no referendum), we get 2," explained state lawmaker Brian Stewart, a member of the committee.

On the Democratic side, they noted that the outcome could have been worse. "As the White House has pushed for attacks on our democracy in state after state, Ohio’s Democratic Legislative Leadership has fended off the most extreme scenario in the Buckeye State. Though there is substantial work to do, this imperfect map allows sitting Democrats to continue to compete in all their existing congressional districts,"Eric Holder, chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in a statement.