Ohio Minority Leader Isaacsohn: Approved Redistricting Map Prevents Trump from Stealing More Congressional Seats

COLUMBUS - Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) today released the following statement concerning Friday's meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission where a negotiated congressional map was approved that ensures current Democratic seats remain competitive races:

"Starting this weekend, 1.4 million Ohioans are going to lose access to SNAP. Health care premiums next year could go up $20,000 for an average Ohio couple.

That's why every seat in the U.S. House of Representatives matters.

We have to be clear about this: At this moment, given the realities of our state's leadership, this negotiated map was our best path to holding the current five Democratic seats in the US House of Representatives and getting Ohioans competitive races in as many districts as we could.

Republicans across the country are following the orders of Donald Trump and national Republicans and pursuing extreme gerrymandering. Republicans are eliminating every Democratic seat they can. We saw it happen in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina.

That was the other option here, but we refused to let that happen in Ohio.

I believe that under the map we approved today, Ohio voters will have the ability to send Congresswoman Kaptur, Congresswoman Sykes, and Congressman Landsman, Congresswoman Beatty and Congresswoman Brown back to the U.S House of Representatives, where they will fight for the healthcare of Ohio families and win us back the House to protect the foundations of our democracy.

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 during Trump's last two years in office - or keeping their districts in 2026, there was only one path. We cannot accept a situation where we would have zero competitive congressional districts in 2026.

I understand that some are frustrated and disappointed, and I am too.

The map we approved today is not the fair map that Ohio voters deserve. As we have said from the beginning, Ohio voters deserve a map that represents the diversity of views in our state and a process that puts people first. We will not stop fighting until our maps fully represent the will of the people, and that change will ultimately have to be through a constitutional ballot initiative

I supported this map because I believe it is the best deal for the people of Cincinnati, Toledo, and Akron to make their voices heard next November and continue to have remarkable representation in Congress. This map averts the disaster that was otherwise coming our way.

This is how we stay in the fight, and this is how we win. They steamrolled Democrats in Republican-led states across the country, but not here. Here we were able to stand our ground and fight for the people.

We are in this fight together every day from now until next November."

The map approved Friday can be viewed here. During the two-months long redistricting process, Ohio Republicans threatened to follow President Donald Trump's orders and grossly gerrymander Ohio maps further by eliminating three Democratic seats and taking the current map of ten Republicans and five Democrats to a grossly misrepresentative 13-2 map without a single competitive district. Democratic leaders in Ohio were steadfast to prevent that undemocratic power grab from happening.

A few additional key points on the negotiated map:

• Former Vice President Kamala Harris won Representative Sykes' redrawn district in 2024;
• Ohio House Democrats calculate that Representative Kaptur would have won her redrawn district by six points in the 2022 cycle;
• Former President Joe Biden and former Senator Sherrod Brown both won in Representative Landsman's redrawn district.

Friday's meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission can be watched in its entirety here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A picture of Leader Isaacsohn at Friday's Ohio Redistricting Commission meeting is attached to this release. Courtesy: Ohio House Democrats.