When the 2026 regular session of the Maryland General assembly ended in April, there was no consensus between the House leadership, Senate leadership, and Governor Moore on the issue of redrawing the current boundaries of Maryland’s eight congressional districts.
Debate on this issue started well before the General Assembly session convened last January.
In November 2025, Governor Moore appointed a Governors Redistricting Advisory Committee (GRAC) to draw new congressional district boundaries for Maryland.
The final maps drawn by the GRAC were viewed by many observers as a thinly disguised attempt to help remove Republican Congressman Andy Harris from Congressional District # 1, a district that includes all of the Eastern Shore.
The Washington Post Editorial Board wrote “This is brass knuckle politics, a flex of raw power, but Moore is trying to pretend he is being principled. Make no mistake, what the governor really wants is to disenfranchise his Republican constituents, especially in the conservative Eastern Shore and Western panhandle. Moore capitulated to escalating pressure from the left because he wants to be president. While Moore enjoys delivering lectures about fighting for democracy, he has not practiced what he preaches.”
GRAC’s maps also met with strong resistance from an unexpected source — Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson.
Ferguson not only opposed the GRAC maps, he also used his authority as Senate President to ensure GRAC’s maps were not even considered in the Senate.
As a result, Ferguson incurred intense pressure to abandon his opposition from Governor Moore, the Speaker of the State House of Delegates, and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House. Through it all, Ferguson was adamant in his opposition
Until recently.
WYPR radio has reported Ferguson is now considering support for a special legislative session to consider early redistricting. Ferguson told WYPR reporter Sarah Petrovich that the “ground has shifted” following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in late April to restrict the use of race in redistricting. That ruling is expected to make it more difficult to use the federal Voting Rights Act to create majority-minority congressional district maps.
Ferguson reacted to the ruling with saying it has changed the legal landscape, and it’s changed the political landscape. Ferguson, who is an attorney, remains steadfast in his opinion that the Maryland Constitution must be amended before any new congressional maps are drawn.
He told WYPR, “No matter what happens, we have a constitutional issue from the 2021 case that has to be dealt with first that is fundamentally a core point of all of this, and the only thing that can deal with that is a constitutional amendment.”
The 2021 case he was referring to was a ruling from a Maryland Court of Appeals Judge that the Maryland constitution requires each legislative district, including congressional districts, shall consist of adjoining territory, be compact in form, and of substantially equal population. Due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.
Ferguson now says it is the intention of the Senate to approve placing a constitutional amendment referendum on the November statewide ballot. With Democratic super majorities in the General Assembly, approving this placement will occur easily.
Ferguson has finally acknowledged his interest in using redistricting to improve the odds for Democratic candidates to prevail in future elections in all eight congressional districts in Maryland. In his WYPR comments, he said “I think there has to be a way to do it without it diluting minority voices to get to eight Democrats.”
Eight months after this issue was first announced by Governor Moore, questions remain on what may happen next.
Placement of a referendum on the ballot does necessarily constitute voter approval of new maps as was the case in Virginia. The exact wording on the referendum has not yet been released to the media or the public.
Language could come from legislation (HB488) which was approved in the House of Delegates earlier this year but was never considered in the state senate. The analysis on HB 488 done by legislative staff includes provisions that:
• Constitutional requirements for the boundaries of legislative districts in Maryland be compact, contiguous and maintain natural boundaries, do not apply to congressional district boundaries, but only to state house and state senate districts boundaries.
• The Maryland Supreme Court has sole authority on legal challenges to new congressional maps.
Questions remain on how the Maryland Supreme Court may rule when, not if, challenges to any new maps are filed.
Questions also remain about the referendum’s success. The outcome could mirror the results of a comparable Virginia redistricting referendum where there were 51.5% yes votes and 48.5% no after an estimated $80 million was spent by referendum supporters and opponents.
There is no question that a politically ambitious Democratic Governor and Democratic super majorities in the Maryland General Assembly will continue to aggressively pursue ways to maintain or expand their mega monopoly on political power in Maryland.
It is business as usual in Annapolis.