Ohio lawmakers set to reach unexpected deal on a new congressional map

[Deminpenn]

5. Ohio is already heavily gerry-mandered

I suspect Ohio Rs understood that creating an even more aggressive gerry-mander would leave them vulnerable to losing seats in a wave election, which it now appears 2026 could well be. To create the max number of R CDs, you have to remove voters from "safe" districts thus creating more swingy districts. You can only go so far into the woods until you start coming out again.