Maryland is moving closer to redrawing its congressional maps, but the changes would not take place in time for the 2026 midterms.
After resisting the redistricting push for months, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson suggested Friday that he is reversing course. He is now considering a special legislative session and constitutional amendment later this year that could clear the way to redraw the state’s congressional maps for future election cycles. The push is seen as too late and risky to pursue for this November’s midterms.
“I’m in active conversations with my caucus about a special session and constitutional amendment to address the 2022 Maryland court redistricting decision and new U.S. Supreme Court [Voting Rights Act] decision, with the aim of putting this before Maryland voters in November,” Ferguson, a Democrat, told NOTUS in a statement.
Ferguson and other Maryland lawmakers have been under increasing pressure from party leaders to redraw the state’s map to make it easier to defeat Maryland’s lone Republican member of Congress, Rep. Andy Harris. Maryland’s move is the latest example of a nationwide redistricting battle that has seen several states redraw their maps to gain a partisan edge in the midterms.
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Some Democrats in the state have argued that redistricting in Maryland is too risky because of a 2022 Maryland court ruling that limited how aggressively the state’s map could be gerrymandered. It was the main reason a push to redistricting stalled in the state Senate last year and why lawmakers want voters to approve a constitutional amendment.
Momentum swung back toward redistricting after the U.S. Supreme Court last month handed down a decision that restricted the reach of the Voting Rights Act. That and other recent court rulings have given Republicans an edge on redistricting in the south.
“The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, and Southern legislatures are already using that ruling to wipe out minority districts,” Ferguson said. “We’ll meet after the Primary to prepare — we must do this right, without risking what we have already won.”
The state’s primary is set for June 23. Ferguson is facing a primary battle for his state Senate seat.
The decision is a reversal from Ferguson, who faced the ire of Democrats at home and nationally after the redistricting push failed in the state Senate last year. He said in the statement that he “wasn’t willing to gamble Democratic seats on a legal fight we could lose.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who backs the effort to redraw the state’s maps, told NOTUS this week in an interview that he was going to “continue being aggressive” in the redistricting push.
Harris, the conservative who would be the target of a new congressional map, slammed the talk of the latest push in a statement last week, saying “more pragmatic heads should prevail.”
Daniella Diaz contributed to this report
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