WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio plans to step down next month, he said on Monday, further tightening the balance of power in the narrowly Democratic controlled House of Representatives.
Stivers, a former Ohio state senator, has been a congressman for the past decade in Ohio’s 15th congressional district, which covers the suburbs surrounding Columbus, the state’s largest city. He has served on the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee.
“I’m grateful to the people of #OH15 for putting their trust in me to represent them in the halls of Congress; it has been one of the biggest honors of my life,” Stivers said on Twitter, adding that he would become the head of Ohio’s Chamber of Commerce.
Democrats currently hold 218 House seats and Republicans have 212.
Stivers’ departure comes ahead of redistricting. Ohio, like every other U.S. state, must redraw its electoral maps every 10 years after the decennial count known as the Census. The changes affect the size and borders of individual districts.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
