Ohio's 9th congressional district

Ohio's 9th congressional district
Map
Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023
Representative
Distribution
  • 86.02% urban
  • 13.98% rural
Population (2023)776,106
Median household
income		$63,370[1]
Ethnicity
Cook PVIR+3[2]

Ohio's 9th congressional district has been represented by Representative Marcy Kaptur (D) since 1983. It was one of five districts that would have voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election had they existed in their current configuration while being won or held by a Democrat in 2022.

This district is located in the northwestern part of the state, bordering Michigan, Indiana, and Ontario, Canada (via Lake Erie), and includes all of Defiance, Williams, Fulton, Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Erie counties, and a portion of northern Wood County.

The previous iteration of the 9th district stretched along Lake Erie from Toledo to Cleveland, and was called "The Snake by the Lake" due to its long and skinny appearance on the map.[3] The two parts of the district were connected only via the Thomas Edison Memorial Bridge between Erie and Ottawa counties, as well as Crane Creek State Park. Some Ohio Democrats argued that when the beach floods, the district was not contiguous.[4]

It was one of several districts challenged in a 2018 lawsuit seeking to overturn Ohio's congressional map as unconstitutional gerrymandering.[5] According to the lawsuit, the 9th "eats its way across the southern border of Lake Erie" while fragmenting Cleveland and Toledo.[6] In 2019, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case meaning that Ohio's congressional districts, including District 9, would not need to be redrawn.[7]

  1. ^ "My Congressional District".
  2. ^ "2022 Cook PVI: District Map and List". The Cook Political Report. July 12, 2022. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  3. ^ "Kill the Snake by the Lake", Toledo Blade, Jan. 16, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  4. ^ Shira Toeplitz (November 10, 2011). "Top 5 Ugliest Districts: Partisan Gerrymandering 101". Roll Call.
  5. ^ Todd Ruger, "Voters Challenge Ohio Congressional Map as Partisan Gerrymander", Roll Call, May 23, 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  6. ^ Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute et al., v. John Kasich, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO, filed 05/23/2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  7. ^ "U.S. Supreme Court tosses challenge to Republican-drawn Ohio congressional maps". Reuters. October 7, 2019. Retrieved November 28, 2021.