Does Ohio need new districts?

Does Ohio need new congressional districts?
Opponents of Issue 1 certainly don’t think so. They’re urging voters to maintain the status quo and keep in place a system that Ohioans previously approved in 2015 and 2018. That process eventually produced maps approved by Republicans and Democrats − but not before a flurry of court cases and partisan fighting bogged everything down.
So, what exactly is the status quo?
Jessie Balmert dug into a report from the League of Women Voters of Ohio − which supports Issue 1 − that highlights some of the quirks in our congressional map. The 1st Congressional District in southwest Ohio lumps together Hamilton and Warren counties despite their significant differences. The city of Massillon, population 32,000, has two different representatives in Congress and splits the Black community.
“There’s no ‘your town is so small it would be absurd to divide it between congressional districts’ rule,’ under the current Ohio standards,” University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven said.
Read more here.
Unions are Sen. Sherrod Brown’s bread and butter, and he needs them to win his hotly contested reelection bid against Republican businessman Bernie Moreno. To that end, Brown gathered in Columbus this week with national leaders from some of the country’s biggest unions.
But these groups are not a monolith: In recent years, former President Donald Trump drove gains in the Republican Party among white, working-class voters and eroded Democrats’ advantage in areas like the Mahoning Valley. Sen. JD Vance called he and Trump the most “pro-worker Republican ticket in history” at a firefighters’ union conference in August − a speech that generated boos and cheers.
That trend wasn’t overlooked at Brown’s event. But union leaders contend GOP policies will gut the middle class and say it’s important for members to talk to one another about what’s at stake.
“There’s a little blueprint called Project 2025,” said Lee Saunders, an Ohio native and president of AFSCME. “People are trying to run away from it − certain people − but we know where this comes from, and these are Trump supporters who want him desperately to regain and be back into office. And they will destroy the labor movement as we know it.”
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to uphold new rules for returning absentee ballots.
A quick refresher: In a separate case, a federal court decided that Ohio law violates the rights of people with disabilities by limiting who can help them vote. Secretary of State Frank LaRose then issued a directive saying Ohioans may only return their own ballot via drop box. Anyone bringing a family member’s ballot or assisting someone with a disability must take the ballots inside the board of elections office.
Voting rights advocates sued over the directive, but Republicans on the Supreme Court argued it’s too late to change anything.
Click here for everything you need to know about the new policy.
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Less than three weeks to go!
Haley BeMiller, political reporter
Questions or story ideas? Email me at [email protected]. You can find me on X @haleybemiller.
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