MD redistricting bill passes House, faces tougher test in Senate

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The House passed legislation Monday to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm election, officially leaving the fate of the map up to the Senate chamber.

“Why am I voting for this bill today? It’s not because I can, it’s because I must,” House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, said in explaining her vote. “Because when I look at myself in the mirror, there’s no way I cannot do what I’m about to do today.”

After nearly four hours of discussion where Democrats aired numerous civil rights infringements and Republicans highlighted pressing state-centered issues, the legislation passed out of the House chamber on a vote of 99-37.

In a statement issued after the vote Monday, Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said that the House “took an important step” to ensure Marylanders are adequately represented.

“Now it’s time for the Maryland State Senate to do what Marylanders expect and democracy demands: take up the map, debate it, improve it if needed—and vote,” he said.

If passed by the Senate, House Bill 488 would redraw the boundaries of Maryland’s eight congressional districts and put forth a ballot referendum to allow Maryland voters to determine if that map should only remain in effect for the 2026 election, or if it would also apply in 2028 and 2030.

A new map would be drawn after the 2030 census.

Of Maryland’s eight congressional districts, seven are currently represented by Democrats. Democrats also hold both of the state’s seats in the U.S. Senate.

Attempting to appeal to his Republican colleagues, Del. C.T. Wilson, D-Charles, noted Trump’s actions since returning to office, including his administration’s attacks on the press, force used against protestors exercising their First Amendment rights, hypocrisy as his administration declared Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist” for carrying a gun the day he was killed by federal immigration agents while uplifting Kyle Rittenhouse — who killed two and injured one while illegally carrying a gun during a protest — and the administration’s tendency to disregard judicial orders, among numerous other complaints of constitutional violations.

“I just want you to know that nothing I’ve said today is fake or made up,” Wilson, the bill’s sponsor, who wore an upside-down American flag pin on his blazer to signal a country “in distress,” said. “What you heard are not feelings. What you heard are incontrovertible facts. No matter what you say next, it won’t change what I said. But what you really heard is the sound of the American Constitution being shredded and torn asunder.”

“I know you didn’t vote for this,” he continued. “If you love America, how can you stand by and watch one man destroy our institutions and the very foundation of our country?”

In explaining his favorable vote, Wilson said Trump “wants to make sure we don’t have elections in 2026, and I promise you, he will be seizing the ballots.”

“The most powerful man in the world fears he has no checks other than his own morality,” he said. “That’s a problem.”

The GOP has railed against the legislation, saying that it is an attempt at partisan gerrymandering to push Maryland’s lone Republican congressman, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, out of office.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, R-Allegany, noted that the chamber is having this debate because of a loyalty to “party over every damn thing.”

“At the end of the day, you know why you’re doing this, you know that it’s wrong,” he said. “You know that it’s not some bipartisan, nonpartisan commission to produce fair districts and reflect the commonality of Maryland and all of this highfalutin language. That is bologna.”

“You’re doing it because Hakeem Jeffries told Wes Moore, ‘You have to do it,’ and Wes Moore told you, ‘You have to do it,’ and you think that it will help you rig a result that won’t do anything to make Maryland a better, more unified state,” Buckel said. 

In November, Moore convened the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission to determine if Marylanders are interested in redrawing the state’s map midcycle as other states have done.

In July, the U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, both Republicans, alleging that some Texan congressional districts are majority minority districts, further stating that they “are nothing more than vestiges of an unconstitutional racially based gerrymandering past, which must be abandoned, and must now be corrected by Texas.” The Texas legislature then redrew the state’s maps, likely garnering an additional five districts for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Shortly thereafter, California’s legislature introduced a new congressional map. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, approved it for a November referendum, in which California voters passed it to allow the new map to take effect until the California Citizens Redistricting Commission redraws the maps after the 2030 census. This is expected to pick up an additional five seats for Democrats.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Utah have also moved to redistrict midcycle. Aside from Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington state are also pursuing legislation to redraw their maps.

Republicans aren’t the only dissenters in the attempt to redraw Maryland’s congressional borders.

Documents reviewed by The Daily Record show that 406 members of the public registered an unfavorable position ahead of the bill’s hearing last week. By contrast, 126 people registered favorable positions.

Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, has also expressed staunch opposition to the idea of redistricting, writing in an October letter to his Democratic caucus that “midcycle redistricting for Maryland presents a reality where the legal risks are too high, the timeline for action is dangerous, the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic, and the certainty of our existing map would be undermined.”

Ferguson, who sat on Moore’s Redistricting Advisory Committee, has maintained his position, noting that adopting a new map could severely disrupt Maryland’s election timeline, and, as recently as last week, has not clarified if the full Senate chamber will take it up for a vote.

The bill is now headed to the Senate chamber for consideration. The campaign filing deadline for the 2026 midterm election is Feb. 23.