Maryland House OKs new congressional map, but Senate will likely prove a roadblock

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The Maryland House approved a new congressional map Monday that could enable Democrats to win the state’s only Republican-held U.S. House seat, but leadership in the state Senate has said since October the bill doesn’t have enough support to advance in that chamber — largely due to concerns it could backfire.

The Maryland House pushed forward with unusual mid-decade redistricting at the urging of Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in response to redistricting in other states.

Democrats now hold a 7-1 advantage over Republicans in the state’s U.S. House delegation. The new map would make it easier to defeat Republican Rep. Andy Harris and enable Democrats to win all eight seats.

President Donald Trump launched mid-decade redistricting efforts last summer, when he urged Republican officials in Texas to redraw maps to help the GOP win more seats in hopes of preserving a narrow House majority.

Maryland Democrats spent much of the four-hour debate on Monday criticizing Trump’s presidency. Del. C.T. Wilson, a Democrat who is the sponsor of the bill containing the map’s new boundaries, said the measure is needed “to help ensure that this administration finally has a Congress that puts his power in check.”

Republicans who oppose the new map focused on how Harris’ district, which is mostly on the state’s largely rural Eastern Shore, would jump over the Chesapeake Bay to include more Democratic voters to help oust Harris.

“It is about nothing except party politics,” Del. Jason Buckel, a western Maryland Republican who is the House minority leader, said.

But Del. Marc Korman, a Democrat in the Montgomery County suburbs of the nation’s capital, argued that the district has extended over the bay several times since the 1960s — including once by court order — and five different Republicans still won the seat when it did, including Harris.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, has consistently said the redistricting effort aimed at flipping the seat held by Harris could jeopardize at least one seat now held by Democrats.

Ferguson has pointed out that a congressional map adopted in 2021 was ruled unconstitutional by a judge who described it as “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” That map also would have made it easier for a Democrat to defeat Harris. Maryland passed another map in 2022, and the parties dropped their legal fight. Redrawing districts again would prompt new legal challenges and potentially allow a court to impose districts, Ferguson has noted.

Changing the map could be disruptive to the state’s election calendar, as well, due to expected legal challenges, the Senate president has said. Maryland has a Feb. 24 candidate filing deadline and a primary scheduled for June 23.

Ferguson’s opposition to mid-decade redistricting has not changed, his spokesperson, David Schuhlein, said Monday.

At the national level, the redistricting battle has resulted so far in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah.

Democrats hope to fully or partially make up that three-seat margin in Virginia, though a judge recently ruled that their redistricting efforts were illegal. Lawmakers have appealed the case.

As in Virginia, redistricting is still being litigated in several states, and there is no guarantee that the parties will win the seats they have redrawn.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to call a special session on redistricting in April.