Maryland schedules special redistricting session to counter GOP gerrymanders

Maryland’s top Democratic lawmakers announced a special session for early August to address congressional redistricting in an effort to counter recent Republican gerrymanders. 

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) said Tuesday that the General Assembly will convene Aug. 3-5 to consider legislation to put a redistricting amendment before voters in November. The bill, which requires a three-fifths vote in both chambers of the Assembly, is the first step toward redrawing the state’s congressional map to dismantle the lone red district, long represented by U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R). 

Should the bill pass, it’ll be up to Maryland voters in November to decide whether to amend the state’s redistricting rules, which would allow the Assembly to draw a new map that favors Democrats in all eight congressional districts for the 2028 election. 

“After recent court decisions weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and created new uncertainty around congressional redistricting, Maryland needs a clear legal path forward,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) said in a statement. “This special session will allow the General Assembly to do its part while ensuring that Maryland voters make the final decision.”

Ferguson previously opposed mid-decade redistricting efforts in the Old Line State after President Donald Trump pushed red states to redraw their maps to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s devastating Callais ruling, which gutted the Voting Rights Act, contributed to Ferguson shifting his tone. 

Last month, Ferguson fully flipped on redistricting efforts. Ferguson, House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D), and Gov. Wes Moore (D) said that they had begun coordinating on redistricting efforts and would schedule a special session sometime this summer. 

“Consensus on this issue has been clear in the House,” Peña-Melnyk said in a statement. “Maryland needs a durable, transparent constitutional framework for congressional redistricting that reflects the evolving legal landscape.”

Moore has long pushed the Assembly to take up redistricting to even the score in Trump’s redistricting wars. Though the August session likely won’t yield a new map just yet — even though lawmakers approved a House bill proposing one in February — it’s a crucial step toward amending the state’s current redistricting rules that Ferguson previously worried could cause legal problems. 

In a statement, the governor praised lawmakers for finally taking up the matter. 

“For months, I have said that inaction is not an option and we cannot sit on the sidelines while voting rights, fair representation, and the foundations of our democracy come under attack across the country,” Moore said. “Across the country, we are watching coordinated efforts to weaken voting rights, dilute Black representation, and bend the rules of democracy for partisan gain — at the very moment when core protections of the Voting Rights Act have been gutted and the right to fair representation is under assault. Until we have national redistricting reform, Maryland will not be caught flat-footed.”