If it seems odd to you that Congressman Warren Davidson of Troy, Ohio, one of the most MAGA Republicans in the U.S. House, represents majority minority communities like Forest Park and Lincoln Heights, 80 miles south of his home, the explanation boils down to two words:
Partisan gerrymandering.
Prior to 2022, Davidson’s 8th Congressional District stopped at the Butler-Hamilton county line before Republicans in Columbus re-drew the 8th to include the Republican-red western half of Hamilton County, along with a strip of communities on the northern border of Hamilton County that are home to at least 20,000 African American voters who largely are Democrats.
Democratic voters in places like Forest Park, Lincoln Heights and parts of Springfield Township were swallowed up in a sea of red voters that extended north along the Ohio-Indiana border for a hundred miles.
So why the gerrymandering?
The principal reason had to do with the former 1st District congressman, Republican Steve Chabot, who was worried about the damage all those Black Democratic voters could do to his 2022 re-election campaign. In what I’ve referred to in this space before as "the Steve Chabot Preservation Act of 2021," the Republican mapmakers completely re-drew Davidson’s district to take in those majority minority areas.
It didn’t work. Chabot lost in 2022 to Democrat Greg Landsman, thanks in large part to the district including the entire city of Cincinnati for the first time.
Davidson, however, had enough of a Republican cushion that he could afford to absorb those Black Democratic voters in his district, even though legislators had to include a weird-looking protrusion reaching into Miami to take on Davidson’s home near Troy.
And so, on Feb. 7, when white supremacists displaying Nazi swastikas gathered on Vison Way, the overpass connecting Evendale and Lincoln Heights, there was a prime display of how two congressmen — Landsman on the Evendale side of the bridge and Davidson on the Lincoln Heights side of the overpass — reacted to neo-Nazis invading their respective districts.
Landsman denounced the demonstration in a video he posted on X in which he said the neo-Nazis’ hate speech was not protected by the First Amendment.
Neo-Nazis were here on Friday. Here’s what went down, how we responded, some context, and why not all “speech” is protected. pic.twitter.com/RuWObfHkJk
— Greg Landsman (@GregLandsman) February 11, 2025
Davidson has not said word one about the incident.
Lincoln Heights Mayor Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey, who has held that office for eight years, told the Enquirer after the demonstration that she didn’t know who Davidson was and had never met him. Davidson, she said, didn’t reach out to her or other village officials.
"All it takes is a phone call," Kinsey-Mumphrey told the paper.
On Monday, I asked Connor White, Davidson's chief of staff, about visits the congressman has made to the Hamilton County portion of his district — and specifically about visits to African American communities like Forest Park and Lincoln Heights. His response included saying Davidson would visit Lincoln Heights that Tuesday.
“Rep. Davidson has represented Hamilton County since 2023 and attended 151 events in the county — including 74 last year,” White wrote in an email. “These events included public events, private events, and a town hall.
“He has 4 meetings in Hamilton County on Tuesday, including a visit to HealthCare Connection in Lincoln Heights, a Federally Qualified Health Center,” White added.
No more details were offered on any other visits to majority minority towns in Hamilton County.
The one town hall meeting Davidson has held in Hamilton County was in August of last year at the Nathanael Greene Lodge in Green Township, a heavily Republican part of the county.
Even so, Davidson hasn't made any headlines regarding his district this year. His one claim to fame so far had to do with a national disaster 2,400 miles away.
Davidson made national headlines early in 2025 when he went on Fox Business and said the federal government should withhold assistance from wildfire victims until the government of California met certain conditions.
“If they want the money, then there should be consequences where they have to change their policies,” Davidson said. “I mean, we support the people that are plagued by disaster, but we have to put pressure on the California government to change course here.”
Davidson said his objection comes because of supposed weaknesses in California’s forest management policies.
In other words, he was injecting partisan politics into a natural disaster that left thousands homeless.
Hamilton County Auditor Jessica Miranda, a Forest Park Democrat and the former Ohio 28th District state representative, said she has seen Davidson in Hamilton County when she attended Hamilton County Farm Bureau breakfasts last year, where Davidson was also in the room.
“I remember one where a farmer was trying to talk to him about black vultures killing his calves and asking if there was any way the federal government could help,” Miranda said. “Instead of answering the man, Davidson went on a rant about how Joe Biden was responsible for every problem in the world. He never did answer the question.”
She wasn't surprised when told the mayor of Lincoln Heights had never heard of him.
“I’m not even sure he is aware that he represents majority minority communities here," Miranda said "They never hear from him."
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