Trump-Aligned State’s New Congressional Map Revealed After GOP Cuts Deal With Democrats

Republicans in Columbus pulled off a political curveball late Wednesday evening, cutting a deal with Democrats on Ohio’s congressional map, according to Punchbowl News.

After hours of late-night horse-trading, GOP members of the state’s redistricting commission offered Democrats a compromise. And rather than gamble on a ballot fight, Democrats took the medicine.

Under the new map, Democrat Rep. Emilia Sykes gets a slightly friendlier northeast Ohio district, though it’s still a toss-up zone where nothing comes easy. Rep. Greg Landsman’s Cincinnati turf shifts redder too, forcing him to slog it out in territory less friendly than before. And longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur sees her northwest Ohio district — already one Donald Trump carried by seven points — tilt even more Republican.

Columbus Democrats Joyce Beatty and Shontel Brown stay parked in safe blue seats, and Dems hang onto an outside shot at challenging GOP Reps. Max Miller, Mike Carey, and Mike Turner.

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Almost everyone assumed the commission would deadlock, kicking the map back to the GOP-controlled legislature, where Republicans were locked and loaded to pass a brutal 13-2 map. Sources say the GOP even showed Democrats that scorched-earth draft and warned it would hit the floor on Nov. 1 if negotiations collapsed.

Democrats countered with the threat of a referendum campaign, something House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled he’d bankroll — but collecting roughly 250,000 signatures in just 90 days, through football season and the holidays, is a tall order. Republicans weren’t eager to gamble when they already hold the advantage. So both sides blinked enough to shake hands.

The redistricting commission meets today at 4 p.m. ahead of the Oct. 31 deadline.

Sykes, the lone Democrat who benefited from the deal, is the daughter of former state lawmaker Vernon Sykes, who spent more than four decades in Columbus and built relationships with Republicans now shaping her district.

And the GOP bench is already eyeing battlefield turf. Ohio Senate President Rob McColley has his sights on Kaptur’s seat, with insiders saying he pushed to pull his Henry County base into the district to tilt a future primary.

Ultimately, Democrats got dinged, while Republicans accepted a slightly softer map now to avoid months of referendum chaos and the risk voters flip the script. In a strong Democratic environment, Sykes, Landsman, and Kaptur can still survive — but they will have to fight for their seats.

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