Maryland’s Democratic-controlled Legislature voted Tuesday to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would pave the way for them to eliminate the state’s lone Republican-held congressional district before the 2028 election.The move came after months of Democratic divisions over whether they should redraw their state’s congressional map in response to GOP redistricting efforts across the country.Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson had long balked at joining the mid-decade redistricting fight, arguing an aggressively redrawn map could backfire in court.He faced pressure from state and national Democratic leaders, including Maryland Gov.
Wes Moore and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to take up a new map ahead of this year’s midterms.But after a major U.S.Supreme ruling this spring that weakened the Voting Rights Act and further opened the floodgates for Republicans, particularly in southern states, to redraw congressional boundaries, Ferguson changed his tune.
He agreed to a special legislative session this month to take up a constitutional amendment that helped alleviate his initial legal concerns about the push.If a majority of voters approve the amendment in November, it would exempt congressional redistricting plans from the state’s constitution.That way, congressional districts would not be required to be “compact in form, and of substantially equal population” and lawmakers wouldn’t be required to give “due regard” to “natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.”Ferguson noted during a Monday committee hearing that in 2022, a state judge tossed a Democratic-drawn map for violating the state constitution, stating that it improperly favored Democrats.In the committee hearing, Democratic lawmakers celebrated the proposed amendment.
“Across the country, states are considering and passing mid-decade congressional redistricting plans.Maryland cannot remain on the sideli...