Ohio's 3rd congressional district

Ohio's 3rd congressional district
Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023
Representative	Joyce Beatty D–Columbus
Distribution	99.82% urban[1] 0.18% rural
Population (2022)	785,836[2]
Median household income	$67,720[2]
Ethnicity	55.1% White 27.5% Black 6.3% Hispanic 5.6% Asian 4.8% Two or more races 0.8% other
Cook PVI	D+20[3]

Ohio's 3rd congressional district is located entirely in Franklin County and includes most of the city of Columbus. The current district lines were drawn in 2022, following the redistricting based on the 2020 census. It is currently represented by Democrat Joyce Beatty.

It was one of several districts challenged in a 2018 lawsuit seeking to overturn Ohio's congressional map due to alleged unconstitutional gerrymandering.^[4] According to the lawsuit, the 3rd was "shaped like a snowflake" that was designed to "fracture" Columbus.^[5] The plaintiffs focused on the 3rd in part because the 2013-2023 version of the district was barely contiguous. In some portions, it was almost, but not quite, split in two by the neighboring 12th and 15th districts which split the rest of Columbus between them.

The 2013-2023 map, drawn in private by Republican lawmakers in a Columbus hotel room, drew most of the heavily Democratic portions of Columbus into the 3rd, with much of the rest of Columbus split into the more Republican 12th and 15th districts. An alternative plan was to split Columbus between four districts, creating 13 safe Republican seats. In May 2019, the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati deemed the map unconstitutional, as intentionally drawn to keep Republicans in power and disenfranchise Democratic voters.^[6] The U.S. Supreme Court discarded the district court ruling in October 2019.^[7]

In 2018, Ohio voters approved a ballot measure known as Issue 1, which grants the minority party oversight on redistricting, requiring 50 percent minority party approval for district maps. The process will only take place after the 2020 census and presidential election.^[8][6]

For most of the time from 1887 to 2003, the 3rd was a Dayton-based district; much of that territory is now the 10th district.