Moore pushes for Congressional Redistricting, sets up Confrontation with Senate

Gov. Wes Moore (D) hinted that he may move ahead with plans to redraw the state’s eight congressional districts, and to call a possible special session, despite opposition from a key lawmaker.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), in a letter to Senate Democrats Tuesday, said he opposed mid-cycle redistricting, which he called “too risky” for Democrats who could end up losing a seat in their efforts to redraw congressional districts to gain one.

Ferguson said that redistricting in the middle of a decade “twists rules for potential short-term advantage while undermining trust in institutions and ultimately, democracy, but that is not the reason we should not pursue it.”

“Simply put, it is too risky and jeopardizes Maryland’s ability to fight against the radical Trump Administration. At a time where every seat in Congress matters, the potential for ceding yet another one to Republicans here in Maryland is simply too great,” he wrote.

But Moore signaled the potential for a fight with Ferguson over the issue.

“The General Assembly is a large body, so while I have read the Senate President’s letter, I also know that one person cannot stop a process,” Moore told reporters Wednesday.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). (File photo Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
“My commitment stays firm that we are going to make sure that we have fair maps inside the state of Maryland, and we are not going to bend the knee to Donald Trump,” Moore said, adding that “a special session is not off the table, regardless of what anyone else says.”

‘I understand that pressure’
States typically redraw their congressional district lines every 10 years, after the decennial census reports on population shifts. But some Republican-led states, at the urging of President Donald Trump (R), began redistricting this year in an effort to make the map more friendly to GOP candidates in the 2026 elections.

Texas, where Republicans hold 25 of 38 House seats, approved a new map in August that could net five more GOP seats next fall. Soon after, Missouri and North Carolina moved to pass new maps that favor Republicans.

Democratic states are responding, led by California, which could pass a map that would add five Democratic seats, and other states are under pressure to follow suit. In his three-page confidential letter to the 34 members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus, Ferguson acknowledged the political pressure many Democrats are feeling to challenge Trump on this, the budget and other issues.

“This push means that you are feeling the need to fight back, not just intrinsically, but from neighbors, family, other electeds, and constituents,” Ferguson writes. “I understand that pressure, as I am experiencing it alongside you.”

But Ferguson implies that GOP effort to game congressional districts in their states is a form of cheating Maryland should shun.

“In state after state, leaders are considering redrawing congressional maps in the middle of the decade to disenfranchise minority party voters; not because the census changed — not because population shifted — but because the political winds did,” he wrote. “The result of all this has been an all-out attack on the Democratic Party and the core of democracy.”

Maryland Democrats have largely had their way with redistricting over the last quarter-century.

Nearly 25 years ago, Democrats and Republicans shared an even split of the state’s eight congressional districts. But under Gov. Parris Glendening (D) in 2002, lawmakers approved a map that gave Democrats a 6-2 advantage. In the 2012 redistricting, rural, Republican Western Maryland was combined with portions of largely Democratic Montgomery County to give Democrats a 7-1 edge.

But a map three years ago that could have given Democrats all eight House seats was struck down by a state judge who called the plan “extreme partisan gerrymandering.” Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia’s ruling linked partisan map-making to potential violations of Maryland’s Declaration of Rights.

The maps were redrawn to create the 7-1 map in use today — a map Ferguson noted has never been reviewed by the courts but could become collateral damage in a legal challenge of a mid-decade redistricting effort.

“We do not know how a court would assess a revised midcycle map and whether the court would use party affiliation as a measure,” Ferguson wrote in his letter. “We do, however, have a certainty under the current map; that evaporates the moment we start down a path of redistricting mid-cycle with an unclear legal landscape and an even more unclear legal timeline.”

Ferguson’s letter notes that Republican-controlled states that can still redistrict control 55 congressional seats. States with Democratic supermajorities control 35 Republican congressional seats. The result could be a net loss of 20 Democratic controlled seats, he said.

Ferguson claimed Maryland is holding other Republican states from redrawing their maps. He said “several Republican states are resisting the pressure to redistrict and are mostly able to do so because Maryland and other Democratic states are not redistricting either. In short — if Maryland redistricts, Republican-led states that were not planning to do so, will. That means that Maryland’s potential gain of one seat is immediately eliminated, and, in fact, worsens the national outlook.”

Moore’s legislative math problem

If he calls for a special session, Moore would still need to get 24 votes to pass a redistricting bill in the 47-member Senate.

All of those will have to come from the 34-member Democratic Caucus, a supermajority in the Senate. And he would need at least 29 votes to ensure the ability to end any filibuster in the Senate.

For Ferguson, the math is easier.

The Democratic Senate president starts with 13 Republican senators who are likely to oppose any redistricting effort. He will also likely bring with him the chairs and vice chairs of the standing committees and other members of leadership as well as other loyalists.

Without the votes in the Senate, a redistricting effort goes no further than the House.

Moore is not the only one who is not giving up on Maryland redistricting. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday that Moore “has been very clear that Maryland is prepared to respond … to the Trump Republican effort to rig the midterm elections.”

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) (File photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
“It’s my expectation, based on my conversations with Gov. Moore, my conversations with leadership in the Maryland General Assembly and certainly my conversations with the Maryland delegation, that the state of Maryland knows what the stakes are, understands the assignment — and as we are seeing in multiple other states beginning with California, will respond aggressively and appropriately in short order,” Jeffries said.

Moore last week hinted at the possibility of a special session focused on redrawing Maryland’s eight congressional districts. In an ironic turn, he told reporters the effort to revisit the state’s congressional maps before the 2030 Census was about fair and competitive districts.

“I know that if you look at the maps all across the country, less than 10% of all maps are even competitive,” Moore said.

“There’s gerrymandering that is taking place right now inside of our maps all around the country and I hate the gerrymandering process, but we’d be lying to ourselves if we didn’t act like the maps that we have right now are not gerrymandered,” Moore said.

That goes for Maryland’s congressional districts, he said.

“I think if you look at the process of how these maps are laid out, you cannot look at the win margins, you cannot look at how it’s established right now and say that Maryland’s maps are not worth reexamination,” Moore said. “They are worth reexamination if you look at just the average win portion that we have for the members of our delegation.”

Speaker Jones leaves door open to redistricting

Moore can call a special session, but what happens next could be difficult.

Neither chamber is obligated to pass nor even take up a specific bill. There is some question about whether the Senate could simply adjourn its proceedings after taking up overrides of any vetoes issued this year by Moore.

The governor has some allies in the push.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) said she is open to a discussion about redrawing congressional districts, though her statement does not speak to the possibility of a special session.

House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) said the House of Delegates is open to a midcycle redistricting proposal. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
“Mid-cycle redistricting should concern anyone who cares about the health of our democratic institutions and the future of fair elections,” Jones said in a statement. “Closing the door now on the mid-cycle redistricting debate denies our constituents the opportunity to voice their opinion on an issue that goes far beyond their district lines. As I’ve stated before, my door remains open to my colleagues in the Senate and to the Governor to jointly pursue efforts to protect our democracy.”

Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery), the House majority leader, announced in August he would sponsor redistricting legislation. And Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery) said this week that mid-decade redistricting in Maryland is an imperative.

“We can’t miss this moment to ensure accountability and fair representation,” Wilkins said. “Our democracy is at stake in a real way, and we have an obligation to make sure district lines truly reflect our communities. At a time when voting rights, diversity and basic freedoms are under assault, Maryland must step up to ensure we have the strongest and most representative government possible.”

Wilkins, vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, is also chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, but said she was speaking only for herself.

The effort has some support in the Senate.

Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel) has said he would sponsor redistricting legislation in his chamber, but he declined to comment on redistricting when asked Wednesday afternoon.

Moore, speaking to reporters Wednesday, insisted “Maryland needs to go through a process of establishing, do we have fair maps, especially if Donald Trump is trying to rig a system to try to win an election by asking only Republican states to do that.”

“I will work with Senate President Ferguson,” Moore added. “I also work with all of the other senators and all the other members of the House, because it is a large body, and one person does not decide whether or not Maryland goes through this process.”

By Bryan P. Sears.
Maryland Matters reporter Nicole Pilsbury contributed to this story.