Last Friday was a hectic Friday — very hectic — for Rep. Greg Landsman, a second-term US House Democrat in Cincinnati.
Landsman was racing from votes on the US House floor to a late day flight en route to Selma, Alabama. The father of two was juggling tasks to ensure he could spend his weekend as part of the gathering – and the solidarity – of a “Day of Action”, in response to the Supreme Court ruling which gutted the Voting Rights Act.
But Landsman took a moment to jump on a zoom call, to discuss with a reporter the importance of his forthcoming Selma trip and his childhood days in Oxford, Ohio, which was a critical community in the Underground Railroad and – a century later – was a gathering post for civil rights pioneers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Landsman told Meidas Touch Network that another civil rights fight has begun.
“Republican politicians in the South are going and destroying Black districts,” Landsman said, “It is both figuratively and literally backwards. We’re going backwards. It’s terrible.”
Landsman isn’t from the South. His district –which reaches the Ohio-Kentucky border - is untouched this year by the Supreme Court’s landmark April ruling. But Landsman knows how irate the decision has made many of his constituents.
“The Supreme Court is saying ‘We’re going to take power away from Black voters and transfer it to politicians.” Landsman said.
The high court’s pillaging of the Voting Rights Act threatens to dilute the power of Black voters in several states in the South, as Republicans race to state capitals to promptly redraw Congressional lines.
Several Members of the Congressional Black Caucus – which could be a much smaller group in 2027 – have equated the voting rights act ruling with “Jim Crow 2.0.” Rep. Sydney Kamlager Dove, a California Democrat, said the comparison is fair and prescient.
For Democrats, all is not lost. Far from it. The ruling carries the prospect of galvanizing Black voters and juicing turnout in places like……… Cincinnati.
Landsman has benefited from strong support among Black voters in his first two elections. Data obtained by Meidas Touch Network, shows his is one of more than a dozen competitive races in which Black voters comprise at least 17 percent of the electorate.
There is already an early sign of an enthusiasm gap in Landsman’s southwest Ohio district. Approximately 54,000 votes were cast in the Democratic primary, and only 35,475 in the Republican primary.
Meidas Touch Network has learned a group of North Carolina advocates are launching a two-month statewide tour to mobilize Black voters, beginning in July.
According to a memo from Democracy North Carolina, a nonprofit community organizing group on behalf of voting access, “The tour launches early July in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, a historic Black Belt district that has not elected a Republican since 1883 and that has been surgically dismantled by the state legislature’s sixth congressional map in six years. It will travel west across the state through multiple stops, culminating in a closing rally in Charlotte late August.”
The Democracy North Carolina organization is also planning a gathering in Greensboro on August 6th, the 61st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act’s signing into law. The group told Medias Touch Network, “The event will bring together voters, legal experts, faith leaders, students, and community members to mark what was lost with the Callais decision and commit to what comes next.”
In the fierce Congressional race in northwest Ohio, including Toledo, incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur is seeking to consolidate Black voter support. Kaptur campaign spokeswoman Kegan Zimmerman told Meidas Touch Network, “Congresswoman Kaptur has heard from voters in the district how the stakes for Black voters and every voter of color are higher than they have been in a generation. Our campaign is answering this moment the way Marcy always has: by showing up, listening, and earning trust in every neighborhood. One door at a time, voter by voter, block by block.”
Months before the Supreme Court ruling, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unfurled an initiative to mobilize Black voters that it touted as its “earliest ever” such operation in an election cycle. The organization championed “investments that will ensure the DCCC can conduct robust research, spend earlier than ever with paid media and voter education, mail, increase earned media, persuasion and mobilization efforts, build grassroots cohorts, and hire staff dedicated to organizing on the ground.”
They increasingly need that investment to pay off. To offset near-certain losses in the South, Democrats will need the extra muscle to capitalize in the competitive races in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.
In the Tidewater area of Virginia, in one of the most competitive US House districts in America, likely Democratic nominee Elaine Luria’s campaign said “Black voters will be key in deciding who wins, which will in turn flip the House.” Luria, who previously served in the US House until a 2022 defeat against Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, is seeking to oust Kiggans in a rematch this November.
Luria’s spokesperson told Meidas Touch Network the campaign is seeking to “harness the power of activism and the energy surrounding recent events” to propel toward victory.
In Georgia, redistricting would not impact the 2026 midterms, but looms large for the 2028 US House elections. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat from the western suburbs of Atlanta, said she expects to be targeted next year, after having already been shifted twice in her brief Congressional career.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican whose term ends in January, has called a June session of the legislature to address redistricting.
https://georgiarecorder.com/2026/05/13/kemp-calls-june-special-session-to-address-redistricting-ballot-qr-codes-in-georgia/
McBath said the gerrymandering is enraging her constituents, who will speak through their votes in November, when Georgia’s pivotal US Senate race is on the ballot.
“Republicans have already gone after Black people’s economic stability, from using DOGE to target Black federal workers to draconian cuts to health care and SNAP,” said Tierra Ward, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Ward told Meidas Touch Network, “The attack on our political power is just another motivating factor for voters already eager to hold Republicans accountable. From their screens to their doors, the DCCC will continue to remind Black voters just how awful the Republican trifecta is for them and we know they’ll reject far-right Republicans come November.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee did not immediately return requests for comment. But the campaign committee did issue a statement Friday after the Supreme Court rejected a challenge from Virginia to a decision by its state court, which through out redistricted maps favoring Black voters and Democrats.
“Once again, the courts confirmed what voters already figured out long ago: national Democrats are fraudsters and losers. Their desperate stunts and nonstop meltdowns won’t change the fact that House Republicans are on offense,” said NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella.
They messed with the wrong people and will regret it.
Excellent column, and time to give to the DCCC.