“why the OH GOP decided to cede the Democrats a seat in Columbus when they couldve attached more GOP areas to the existing seat(s), I have no idea”
What Republicans *should* have done is to draw an “uber-Democrat CD that stretched from Cincinnati to Columbus, by way of Dayton and Springfield, and it would be 57% black (I drew one with a redistricting ap on the Internet), making it impossible for a future legislature to unravel. It would pack so many Democrats into that district that it would make every surrounding district comfortably Republican, and leave GOP turf to shore up the Ohio River CDs. As it is now, the horribly gerrymandered CDs for Tiberi and Stivers should be safe for the decade, but the OH-01 could be competitive (especially if Chabot retires or runs for higher office at some point), while the OH-06 was not shored up enough and the districts south of Cleveland and Akron are still winnable for the RATs.
But the OH GOP wasn’t brave enough to draw the Cinci-to-Columbus CD, and now with the nomination (tantamount to election) of a black Democrat from Columbus it will be very difficult to do this later on, since “Columbus voters have shopwn that a black-majority district is unnecessary for black voters to elect a member of their choice” and “drawing a Cincinnati-to-Columbus black-majority CD will eliminate the possibility of a second black Representative being elected in that portion of the state,” or something.
I disagree. I live in Dayton, and while it is Dem, it isn’t overwhelmingly so, and Turner was mayor not too long ago, and this time we have a good shot at electing two council members out of three. If blacks turn out, yes it will go Dem, but if they don’t, Republicans can win this. I would hate to see us consigned to always being a useless outpost of Dem governance.