Maryland lawmakers will begin a special session Monday on a constitutional amendment that could clear the way for Democrats to redraw congressional districts before 2028 and target the state’s only Republican-held U.S. House seat.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Maryland’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly will convene Monday to consider a constitutional change that could ultimately allow lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map before the 2028 elections and improve their chances of winning all eight U.S. House districts.
Democrats currently hold seven of Maryland’s eight congressional seats. The proposed amendment would remove state constitutional restrictions that have previously limited lawmakers’ ability to create congressional districts based on partisan considerations.
The measure would not immediately change district boundaries. It must first receive three-fifths approval in both chambers of the General Assembly and then win support from voters in the Nov. 3 general election.
If voters approve the amendment, lawmakers could return to the congressional map before the 2028 election cycle and draw districts under the revised constitutional standards.
Republicans have denounced the proposal as an attempt to eliminate the state’s last GOP-held congressional district. Democratic leaders say the change is a response to Republican-led redistricting efforts elsewhere in the country and recent developments at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The special session marks a reversal for state Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat who blocked an earlier effort to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts before this year’s midterm elections.
Ferguson had warned that an immediate attempt to enact a new map could fail in court and potentially create unintended consequences. He said his position changed after the Supreme Court weakened provisions of the Voting Rights Act in late April.
That ruling gave Republican-led states additional legal grounds to redraw districts in parts of the South with substantial minority populations that had previously elected Democrats.
“It felt like the unwinding of any type of democratic norms in the blink of an eye,” Ferguson said in an interview.
Maryland’s sole Republican member of Congress is Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus. His 1st Congressional District is based largely on the state’s rural Eastern Shore, a peninsula divided from much of Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay.
Democratic lawmakers previously attempted to make Harris’ district more competitive by extending it across the bay and adding communities from other parts of the state.
A judge invalidated that map in 2022, describing it as a “product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”
The court relied in part on provisions requiring districts to be compact and to respect “natural boundaries.” Lawmakers now want the state constitution to specify that those requirements apply only to districts for the Maryland General Assembly and not to congressional districts.
Supporters believe that distinction would give lawmakers greater freedom to draw a new U.S. House map without facing the same constitutional objections that defeated the earlier plan.
Republican lawmakers have objected not only to the substance of the proposal but also to how the special session will be conducted.
House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said restrictions on public testimony suggested Democratic leaders were treating the hearing process as little more than a procedural requirement.
“We are very concerned with the significant limitations on witnesses, and the reality that any bill hearing is obviously intended to be a brief and meaningless formality,” Buckel said in a statement.
Harris said the amendment would allow lawmakers to divide communities that share geographic, economic and cultural interests and place rural voters into districts dominated by suburban and urban populations.
He said the “gerrymandering that this constitutional amendment sets up” would dilute the influence of rural Maryland residents. Harris said such a map would “of course” face a legal challenge.
Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who had expressed frustration when lawmakers declined to redraw the map earlier in the year, said the amendment had become necessary because Republican states were aggressively revising congressional districts elsewhere.
Moore argued that the proposal would place the ultimate decision before Maryland voters rather than leaving it solely to elected officials or party leaders.
“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,” Moore said in an interview as he assumed the chairmanship of the National Governors Association.
Maryland’s action is part of an escalating national fight over congressional district boundaries that began last year after President Donald Trump encouraged Republican-led states to redraw maps to strengthen the party’s narrow House majority before the midterm elections.
Republicans estimate that new maps adopted in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama could produce as many as 16 additional GOP seats.
Democrats have faced several setbacks in their response but believe revised maps in California and Utah could generate as many as six additional seats for their party.
With most of the midterm redistricting battles already underway or completed, Maryland and New York are now moving toward possible map changes for the 2028 election.
New York’s Democratic-controlled Legislature has approved the first stage of a constitutional amendment that would authorize mid-decade redistricting, eliminate state prohibitions on partisan gerrymandering and make it easier for lawmakers to override an independent redistricting commission.
The New York proposal must receive legislative approval again next year before it can be submitted to voters.
Maryland’s amendment could move more quickly. Legislative approval during the special session would place the measure on the November ballot, allowing lawmakers to begin work on a new congressional map well before the 2028 campaign.
Original article
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