On Friday, a Republican-majority panel in Ohio approved a new map for U.S. House districts, potentially enhancing the GOP’s prospects of gaining two additional seats in the upcoming elections. This move could also support former President Donald Trump in maintaining a narrow congressional majority.

In a related development, Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly has made progress on a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at facilitating redistricting ahead of next year’s congressional midterms. On Friday, the Senate passed a resolution permitting lawmakers to temporarily override a bipartisan redistricting commission to manipulate the district maps, following the House’s advancement of the measure on Wednesday.

Trump has been actively encouraging Republican-led states to redraw their U.S. House districts to secure more seats. However, Ohio’s redistricting was mandated by the state constitution because the existing districts, established post-2020 census, lacked bipartisan approval.

Ohio joins the ranks of Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, where GOP lawmakers have already made changes to their congressional district boundaries.

Meanwhile, Democrats are resisting these efforts. California voters are set to decide on a redistricting proposal put forward by the Democratic-led Legislature in an upcoming election on Tuesday.

The political parties are in an intense battle, because Democrats need to gain just three seats in next year’s election to win control of the House and gain the power to impede Trump’s agenda.

In Ohio, Republicans already hold 10 of 15 congressional seats. The new map could boost Republican chances in already competitive districts currently held by Democratic Reps. Greg Landsman in Cincinnati and Marcy Kaptur near Toledo. Kaptur won a 22nd term last year by about 2,400 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, in a district carried by Trump. Landsman was reelected with more than 54% of the vote.

Ohio residents criticize new map

Ohio’s commission had faced a Friday deadline to adopt a new map, or else the task would have fallen to the GOP-led Legislature, which could have crafted districts even more favorable to Republicans. But any redistricting bill passed by the Legislature could have been subject to an initiative petition campaign from opponents seeking to force a public referendum on the new map.

The uncertainty of that legislative process provided commissioners of both parties with some incentive for compromise. All seven commissioners — five Republicans and two Democrats — voted for the new map.

But Ohio residents who testified to commissioners Friday denounced the new districts. Julia Cattaneo, who wore a shirt saying “gerrymandering is cheating,” said the new map is gerrymandered more for Republicans than the one it is replacing and is not the sort of compromise needed.

“Yes, you are compromising — your integrity, honor, duty and to represent Ohioans,” she said.

Added resident Scott Sibley: “This map is an affront to democracy, and you should all — every one of you — be ashamed.”

Republican state Auditor Keith Farber, a member of the commission, defended the map during a testy exchange with one opponent. Because many Democrats live in cities and many Republicans in rural areas, he said there was no way to draw a map creating eight Republican and seven Democratic districts — as some had urged — without splitting cities, counties and townships.

Virginia Democrats point at Trump to defend redistricting

Virginia is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans. Democratic lawmakers haven’t unveiled their planned new map, nor how many seats they are trying to gain, but said their moves are necessary to respond to the Trump-inspired gerrymandering in Republican-led states.

“Our voters are asking to have that voice. They’re asking that we protect democracy, that we not allow gerrymandering to happen throughout the country, and we sit back,” Democratic Sen. Barbara Favola said.

The proposed constitutional amendment would let lawmakers temporarily bypass a bipartisan commission and redraw congressional districts to their advantage. The measure would still need to pass the General Assembly again next year, then go before voters in a statewide referendum.

The developments come as Virginia holds statewide elections Tuesday, where all 100 seats in the House of Delegates are on the ballot. Democrats would need to keep their slim majority in the lower chamber to advance the constitutional amendment next year.

Republican Sen. Mark Obenshain said Democrats were ignoring the will of voters who had overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan redistricting commission.

“Heaven forbid that we actually link arms and work together on something,” Obenshain said. “What the voters of Virginia said is, ‘We expect redistricting to be an issue that we work across the aisle on, that we link arms on.’”

But Democratic Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, who has long championed the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission, noted the panel still would be in charge of redistricting after the 2030 census.

“We’re not trying to end the practice of fair maps,” he said. “We are asking the voters if, in this one limited case, they want to ensure that a constitutional-norm-busting president can’t break the entire national election by twisting the arms of a few state legislatures.”

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