As Chairs of the Democratic Party in Ohio and Texas, we have a warning for the rest of the country: Republicans will do anything they can to stay in power, including subverting basic principles of democracy. Why? Because they don’t respect the voters.
In Texas, because of their radical partisan redistricting, Republicans already hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats (66 percent) even though President Trump only won 52 percent of the popular vote in 2024. But even this extreme gerrymander has not been enough to satisfy the Texas Republican power grabbers. Instead, ignored that redistricting is to be done every ten years and redrew the congressional maps mid-decade, in an effort to take more seats. They even tried to use federal agents to intimidate lawmakers in the course of pushing through their anti-democratic gerrymander.
It is clear that Texas Republicans put the real needs of Texans on hold in a desperate attempt to increase their power and ignore the will of the voters.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, Republicans are planning to force congressional maps on the voters similar to the ones that even the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court rejected seven different times as a violation of the state constitution. That is consistent with Republicans’ long history of ignoring the will of Ohioans.
In 2023 they tried to end majority rule for passing ballot initiatives. They then continued efforts to outlaw abortion after voters overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. And in 2024, they defeated an effort to establish a citizen-led redistricting commission that would take politicians out of the redistricting process. They did this by using deceptive official ballot language that the Republican Party chair bragged was designed to confuse voters.
Ohio is now the only state required by law to redraw our congressional maps this year. Even though Republicans hold 10 of the state’s 15 congressional seats (66 percent) in a state that gave only 55 percent of their votes to Republican candidates, Republicans are threatening to follow Texas’s lead and make the delegation even more lopsided. They are doing this while purging voters from the rolls, manipulating ballot drop-box laws, and limiting early voting centers to one per county, all to make it harder for Ohioans to vote.
The message from all this is clear. State parties are now on the front lines of the redistricting battle. In Ohio and Texas, we have seen Republican-controlled state governments manufacture supermajorities that cast aside nearly half the state’s voters while they hope no one is paying attention. Well, Democrats are paying attention. And now, we’re warning other states: if you think Republicans won’t go that far, they will.
But Democrats aren’t going to sit back and let Republicans draw their rigged maps without a fight. Texas Democrats fought as hard as they could spreading out across the country, denying Texas’s Republican leadership a quorum for as long as they practicably could. But Ohio’s constitution allows lawmakers to call a vote with or without Democrats present, so legislators will be at the statehouse and in their districts, using every tool available to defend the people of Ohio.
When Republicans finish their efforts in Texas and Ohio, they are coming to your state next. Recently, JD Vance was seen in Indiana, holding a behind-the-curtain meeting with Republican leaders about a potential redraw. South Carolina, Missouri, and Florida Republicans are entertaining the idea of new maps.
The Republicans already have a 16-seat advantage on today’s gerrymandered maps, but they want to take even more power that they haven’t earned by taking the gerrymandering nationwide. Our voters have seen the lengths that Republicans will go to in order to keep their grip on power, and now that Trump and Republicans across the country are deeply unpopular, they’re panicking. Whether it’s their threats to arrest legislators, their manipulation of ballot language, or their threats to funding, there is no limit to what they will do.
Ohioans and Texans want change, especially in an election year where an unpopular administration continues to raise prices and crash our economy. No Ohioan or Texan voted for more expensive groceries or higher bills, but just like with these maps, our state’s Republican elected officials are too weak to stand up for their constituents. This cannot and will not go unanswered. Our state parties will make sure voters don’t forget how eagerly Republicans have been willing to sell their votes to save their own seats in Congress.
Texas was first. Ohio is next. But Ohioans and Texans have never backed down from a fight, and we don’t plan to start now. Whether you’re reading this from a blue, red, or purple state, let our states be a lesson about how far Republicans will go to hold on to their power, and keep that in mind when you head to the ballot box. Together, let’s keep fighting for maps that allow voters to choose their elected officials, not the other way around.
Kathleen Clyde is chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. Kendall Scudder is chair of the Texas Democratic Party.
