Democrats who control the Maryland Legislature began advancing legislation Monday intended to clear the way for a partisan redistricting process that could help their party pick up an additional U.S. House seat by 2028.
The General Assembly heard hours of debate and testimony on a proposed constitutional amendment intended to give Democrats greater latitude to draw congressional maps favoring their party, which already represents seven of the state’s eight House districts. The legislation was expected to reach a vote on final passage Tuesday, and the proposed changes to the state constitution would have to be approved by voters before lawmakers could begin considering new district lines.
Deep blue Maryland’s move is the latest turn in the national battle over redistricting, which kicked off a year ago and has reshaped the U.S. House map ahead of this year’s midterms.
Leaders of the General Assembly – who have been vague about their future plans for redrawing districts but in recent years have attempted to craft 8-0 maps – have characterized their proposal as an attempt to make sure Maryland is well-positioned to respond to redistricting by red states and contribute to efforts to elect Democrats who could serve as a check on the Trump administration.
The state’s Republicans called the proposed amendment a blatant power grab aimed at ousting Maryland’s lone GOP representative in Congress, Rep. Andy Harris.
“Gerrymandering is wrong. Whether it’s in a red state, a blue state – it’s just wrong,” said state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza.
Democrats see an eventual opportunity to pick up one seat
Harris, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, represents Maryland’s 1st District, which is centered on the mostly rural Eastern Shore, part of a scenic peninsula separated from the rest of the state by the Chesapeake Bay.
In 2021, lawmakers tried to remake the maps in a way that made Harris’ district more competitive for a Democrat to win, drawing in communities across the bay. But a judge struck down those districts in 2022, calling them a “product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”
In light of that decision and in hopes of avoiding future adverse legal rulings, lawmakers began advancing legislation to amend the state constitution to make clear that the parameters the judge cited – including that districts be compact in form and have regard given to “natural boundaries” – apply only to General Assembly districts, not congressional ones.
If approved by a three-fifths vote of both chambers, the amendment would go before voters in the Nov. 3 general election. If approved there, lawmakers could revisit the congressional maps for the 2028 election cycle under the constitution’s new guidance.
Republicans say the move sets up a gerrymander
Harris, in an interview ahead of the session, said the “gerrymandering that this constitutional amendment sets up” would break up areas of common interest into districts predominated by urban and suburban areas, disenfranchising rural voters. Such a move would “of course” face a court challenge, he said.
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore cast the move as an urgent necessity in light of Republican redistricting elsewhere. The proposal currently before lawmakers will ultimately give voters, not “party bosses,” the final say, he said.
“And if the people determine that there’s nothing to do, then there’s nothing to do. But if the people determine that we move, we move,” he said in an interview as he became chair of the National Governors Association.
Redistricting reverberates around the country
Maryland’s special session is part of a new phase in a national redistricting battle that began a year ago, when President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to help the party hold on to its slim House majority in the midterm elections. Republicans think they could win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states – Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.
Now some states, such as Maryland and New York, are taking steps to redraw congressional districts ahead of the 2028 elections. New York’s Democratic-led Legislature has approved a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize mid-decade redistricting, repeal prohibitions on partisan gerrymandering and make it easier for lawmakers to bypass an independent redistricting commission in the future. The measure needs another round of legislative approval next year before it can appear on a statewide ballot.
In Maryland, the issue divided Democrats earlier this year.
Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson blocked a different Moore-backed redistricting initiative this spring that could have put new maps in place before the fall elections, citing concerns that the move could backfire upon judicial review. But he has said his views shifted after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in late April. That decision offered new grounds for Republicans to swiftly reconfigure districts in Southern states with large minority populations that have elected Democrats, moves that Ferguson called “painful” to watch.
“It felt like the unwinding of any type of democratic norms in the blink of an eye,” Ferguson said in an interview.
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Associated Press reporters David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Steven Sloan in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
