Election Day recap and redistricting

Ohioans went to the polls and we’ve got a breakdown of how they voted on this week’s episode of Ohio Politics Explained, a podcast from the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau.

Each week, we catch you up on the state’s political news of the week in 15 minutes or less. This week, host Anna Staver was joined by reporter Jessie Balmert.

Here’s what we talked about.

No more ducks

Ohioans got their first look this week at how Republicans in the House and Senate think our 15 congressional districts should look. 

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s infamous duck-shaped distracted would be reconfigured along with Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s snake on the lake. 

That might sound like a step in the right direction, but opponents were quick to point out that the maps carved up Democratic strongholds in ways that could give the GOP 13 seats. 

For example, neither map would give Cincinnati a Democratic district even though 57% of Hamilton County voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.

A bad omen for Democrats?

Ohio got two new members of Congress this week, and they were the candidates we expected. 

Democrat Shontel Brown won her Cleveland area seat, and Republican Mike Carey won the seat that stretches from Columbus to Athens. 

Carey called his victory a signal to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but we explain why the governor’s race in Virginia was a much bigger sign of what’s to come in 2022.