Maryland crept closer to eliminating the state’s lone Republican congressional representative after the Democratic-controlled Legislature voted to put the redistricting question on the ballot in this fall’s general election.
The constitutional amendment advanced by Democratic supermajorities in Maryland’s House and Senate, if passed, will let the state join the nationwide redistricting fight that has elevated the stakes in November’s midterms.
While Maryland would not be able to redraw its congressional maps until 2028 under the ballot initiative, Gov. Wes Moore celebrated Tuesday’s vote as a key countermeasure to the electoral arms race started by President Trump last year.
“For over a year, I have warned that Donald Trump and Republicans across the country are working to rig the system, weaken voting rights, and make this pain permanent. I am proud that today we united and took action,” Mr. Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement.
“I continue to believe that our country needs national redistricting reform,” he said. “But until that happens, inaction is not an option. Maryland will not be caught flat-footed while Republicans engage in political redlining that guts decades of progress that the generations before us fought for.”
Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson was reluctant earlier this year to join the redistricting battle, arguing that Democrats risked losing a seat in Congress amid legal challenges from conservative lawmakers.
But Mr. Ferguson, Baltimore City Democrat, changed his opinion after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act. He soon saw redrawing the state’s congressional map as essential.
His party colleagues cheered the decision that could give the state control of all eight of its congressional seats, leaving Republican Rep. Andy Harris without a place in Congress.
But Mr. Ferguson did not want to treat this as a done deal yet.
“I think we have to get one step at a time because we’ve seen what happens if we act without taking one step at a time,” he said Monday. “We saw that in our neighbors in Virginia, where they thought that they had moved forward, and lo and behold, they hadn’t, and so we are taking this one step at a time. We’ll see where we are after November.”
Virginia put forward a proposal that would ratchet up the commonwealth’s 6-5 Democratic majority to one that was projected to be 10-1 in favor of liberals, but the state’s high court shot down the new map on procedural grounds.
Now Maryland Republicans are crying foul about the partisan push, saying constituents were not supportive of redistricting despite the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic voting population.
And some Democrats were concerned that if a new map did affect Mr. Harris’ electoral chances, rural, redder parts could lose out on state and federal resources since they would be tied to suburban, bluer areas.
“What’s important is taking out the last voice of the minority party, that is the priority,” House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy, Frederick County Republican, said Monday. “That is the exercise of this sham special session, is to remove the voice of the last representative we have, and that’s why we’re standing here in solidarity against it, because it’s wrong.”
Redistricting in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas has helped Republicans pick up a likely 16 seats in the House, while new maps in California and Utah are projected to give Democrats six seats.
The House slightly favors Republicans by a 218-212 margin, making this fall’s midterms pivotal for both parties.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
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