Redistricting: Mercer gets new U.S. Rep.

CELINA - Come the 2026 election cycle, Mercer and Van Wert counties will have a new congressman - U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana.

As a result of the adoption of a congressional district plan by the Ohio Redistricting Commission on Oct. 31, Mercer and Van Wert counties were moved from the 5th District, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, to the 4th District.

The new congressional map takes effect in 2026.

Jordan is certainly no stranger to the area. Up until 2022, Mercer County was carved up into three congressional districts, represented by Latta, Jordan and U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy.

However, the maps were subsequently redrawn, with all of Mercer County situated in the 5th District from 2022 through the end of this year.

The most recently adopted district plan, though, has all of Mercer and Van Wert counties in the 4th District, which Jordan has represented since 2007. He's up for reelection next year.

"We're very excited to have Jim Jordan as our new rep, but we've been very, very satisfied with Bob Latta," Mercer County Republican Party Chairman Bob Hibner told The Daily Standard. "We wanted to have somebody that really knew us, had been a part of the west-central Ohio area, and obviously Jim Jordan has done that in the past. It's nice to have Mercer County unified now as far as our federal representative."

Hibner believes Mercer County's transition to the 4th District will go smoothly.

"We're looking forward to working with Representative Jordan in the future," he said.

Jordan made news this week when the House Judiciary Commitee that he chairs subpoenaed former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith for a closed-door interview later this month even though he had earlier volunteered to appear for an open hearing about his prosecutions of President Donald Trump.

Jordan directed Smith in a letter dated Wednesday to appear for a private deposition on Dec. 17 as part of the panel's investigations into the prosecutor's work.

Jordan's official congressional biography notes that the Champaign County native helped found the House Freedom Caucus and served as its first chairman.

"Jordan has been an advocate of the taxpayer, looking for waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government," his biography states. "As one of the most conservative members of Congress, his efforts have earned him recognition from Citizens against Government Waste, Family Research Council, Americans for Tax Reform's Friend of the Taxpayer Award and the 2012 Weyrich Award for 'National Legislator of the Year.'"

Redistricting

Trump has been urging Republican-led states to reshape their U.S. House districts in an attempt to win more seats. But unlike in other states, Ohio's redistricting was required by the state constitution because the current districts were adopted after the 2020 census without bipartisan support.

Ohio joins Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers already have revised congressional districts. California voters last month approved a redistricting plan passed by the Democratic-led Legislature.

The political parties are in an intense battle, because Democrats need to gain just three seats in next year's election to win control of the House and gain the power to impede Trump's agenda.

In a rare bit of bipartisanship, Ohio's new map won support from all five Republicans and both Democrats on the redistricting panel. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee praised the Ohio Democrats "for negotiating to prevent an even more egregious gerrymander" benefiting Republicans.

Republicans hold 10 of Ohio's 15 congressional seats. The new map could boost their chances in already competitive districts currently held by Democratic Reps. Greg Landsman in Cincinnati and Marcy Kaptur near Toledo. Kaptur won a 22nd term last year by about 2,400 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, in a district carried by Trump. Landsman won reelection with more than 54% of the vote.

National Democrats said they expect to hold both targeted districts and compete to flip three other Republican seats.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission had faced an Oct. 31 deadline to adopt a new map, or the task would have fallen to the GOP-led Legislature, which could have crafted districts even more favorable to Republicans.

Any redistricting bill passed by the Legislature could have been subject to an initiative petition campaign from opponents, forcing a public referendum on the new map.

That uncertainty provided commissioners of both parties with some incentive for compromise. House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, a Democratic commissioner, said the deal "averts the disaster that was coming our way" with a potential 13-2 map favoring Republicans.

And Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, another commissioner, said it avoided a costly battle over a referendum that could have delayed the state's primaries.

But Ohio residents who testified to commissioners denounced the new districts. Julia Cattaneo, whose shirt proclaimed, "gerrymandering is cheating," said the new map is gerrymandered for Republicans more than the one it is replacing and is not the sort of compromise needed.

Republican Auditor Keith Faber, a commission member who lives in Celina, defended the map during a testy exchange with one opponent. Because many Democrats live in cities and many Republicans in rural areas, he said there was no way to draw eight Republican and seven Democratic districts - as some had urged - without splitting cities, counties and townships.

- The Associated Press contributed to this article.