Mid cycle Congressional redistricting efforts Elections could advance Friday in two more states amid increasing jockeying to influence which party will control the U.S. House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.
The Republican-controlled Ohio State Commission is meeting to consider a proposed map that could accomplish just that Give the Republican Party a chance In winning two more seats. Meanwhile, senators in the Democratic-led Virginia General Assembly are expected to vote to advance a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow them to temporarily bypass a bipartisan commission and redraw congressional districts in their favor.
Their scheduled vote comes after the Virginia House of Representatives passed the same resolution on Wednesday. President Donald Trump The redistricting battle has begun this summer by urging Republican-led states to redraw voting districts before next year’s congressional elections. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina I’ve already done that. Voters led by Democrats ca And they decide on new territories.
In Ohio, the map proposed by the committee appears to increase Republicans’ chances in areas controlled by Democratic US Representatives Greg Landsman in Cincinnati and Marcy Kaptur around Toledo, an area that voted for Trump in last year’s presidential election. Kaptur won a second term last fall by about 2,400 votes, or less than one percentage point, while Landsman was re-elected with more than 54% of the vote.
If the Ohio commission fails to adopt the map, the job goes to the Republican-led Legislature, which could enact a map designed to boost the size of the state’s GOP congressional delegation, which now has a 10-5 Republican majority.
In Virginia, proposed Constitutional amendment It is under consideration by senators and is in its early stages. After Friday, the resolution will need to be approved by the state Legislature again next year, then presented to voters via referendum.
along with caVirginia will be one of the few states with a Democratic-led statehouse to enter the national redistricting battle.
“There’s a double standard of Democrats in power that we have to somehow abandon, while Donald Trump is taking power, which we’ve never seen before, and Republicans are running the show,” Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said this week.
Through a constitutional amendment, the Virginia Legislature will only have the power to create a new congressional map when other states do so between now and 2030. Democrats have not revealed their planned map.
Asked whether his party had begun drafting new districts, Scott said: “You’re not naive.”
These developments come as Virginia holds statewide elections on Tuesday, where all 100 seats in the House of Delegates will be voted on. Democrats will need to maintain their narrow majority in the House of Representatives to advance the constitutional amendment next year.
The party’s progressive approach to redistricting reflects members’ confidence in clinging to power. Nearly a dozen Republican-held seats are at risk of flipping this year, as Democrats vie to expand their legislative advantage.
Conservatives in the state Assembly and in Congress have criticized Democrats for quashing efforts to put the maps in the hands of a bipartisan commission, saying the measures run counter to Virginia’s tradition of bipartisanship and decorum.
“There are partisan games in Washington, and it seems like the partisan games have now moved here in Richmond,” Republican U.S. Rep. Jane Keegans, who represents a competitive seat, said earlier this week.
“Since we have a disagreement with the president of the United States, we will throw the Virginia Constitution to the wind,” said Virginia Republican Minority Leader Terry Kilgore.
However, most Republicans rebuking Democrats have restrained their anger when it comes to Trump’s role in the national redistricting battle. One Republican Party delegate in Virginia was a notable exception.
“Frankness requires acknowledging that this bad idea of mid-decade redistricting has the president’s approval in 2025,” Del. Lee Ware said, though he later added: “Going down this circuitous path is a violation of long-standing precedent in Virginia. It means turning our backs on Virginia’s way.”
Democrat Del. Ceia Price, the first Black woman to chair the House Elections Committee, rejected Ware’s argument.
“I know, as a student of history, that the Virginia Method was once used to placate dissent under the guise of decency, but I live for the future,” she said. “That’s why new times and unprecedented times demand a new way for Virginia.”
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Diaz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.