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Republicans in the Ohio General Assembly have held a vise-grip on the state for the better part of 32 years now, ruling with a veto-proof supermajority that has allowed them to do pretty much anything they want, whenever they want.
And there is little legislative Democrats can do about it but complain and issue an endless stream of angry press releases that get them nowhere.
The Ohio GOP has pulled it off for one simple reason: the Republican Party has controlled the drawing of congressional and state legislative districts since 1994, save for four years when Democrat Ted Strickland was governor.
That is real power. The power to create legislative maps that exaggerate GOP’s strength at the polling places and create an aura of invincibility and inevitability.
But the tables may be about to turn.
By the end of this decade, the Ohio Republicans could be on the outside looking in.
And it’s all because of a body created by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018 ballot issues. It’s known as the Ohio Redistricting Commission (ORC).
The ORC has nine members: the governor, the state auditor, the secretary of state, and two members of the Republican leadership in the Ohio Senate and House, and two legislators from the Democratic side.
The current partisan makeup of the ORC is seven Republicans and two Decorates. That means the Republicans win every time.
But all statewide offices are up for election this year, including the three who are automatic members of the ORC.
All Ohio Democrats have to do is win two of the three offices and control of the ORC would switch to the Democrats 4-3.
And there are many who believe the Democrats could do even better than that in the statewide elections in November.
“I think the Democrats are going to sweep the statewide offices this year,” said David B. Cohen, director of the Applied Politics Program at the University of Akron. “There’s a big blue wave coming in November.”
Indeed, an April 2026 poll from Bowling Green State University showed that Ohio Democrats are much more motivated to go the polls this year than their Republicans counterparts.
By court order, the current maps are in place through the 2028 election.
But all bets are off in 2029.
If Democrats win control of the ORC and can sustain it through 2029, they can draw their own maps and keep them going into 2030s and the next U.S. Census period.
Ohio Democrats are smart enough to know they can’t gerrymander their way into control of the Ohio House and Senate. But they also know that, by drawing their own maps, they can turn the GOP “veto-proof supermajority” into a plain old majority. Something a little closer to Ohio's political makeup of 46% Democrats, 54% Republicans.
It would be the kind of majority that would have to reach across the aisle for help from Democrats.
This would be a brand-new experience for most of them.
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