MD General Assembly special session begins Monday: What to know

After nearly 10 months of debate over congressional redistricting, the Maryland General Assembly will convene Monday for a special legislative session to consider a ballot question on the issue.

In early July, State Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat who thwarted Gov. Wes Moore’s attempt to pass a redrawn map during this year’s regular legislative session, and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, announced that they would convene a special session. This only gave members of both chambers and the public a little less than a month to prepare.

The proposed legislation debuted online Wednesday. Should it be approved by both chambers during the session set to run Aug. 3 to 5, voters can expect to see the following language on their ballots during November’s general election:

“The proposed Constitutional Amendment clarifies that certain standards in the Maryland Constitution apply only to districts used to elect members of the General Assembly; authorizes the General Assembly to grant original jurisdiction to the Supreme Court of Maryland to review the congressional districting plan of the State; and requires the criteria for boundaries of congressional districts to be determined by applicable federal laws.”

In layman’s terms, voters will decide whether the state should scrap standards set by former Maryland Supreme Court Judge Lynne A. Battaglia in 2022 that require congressional districts to be “geographically contiguous” and “compact.” Prior to that ruling, only state legislative districts had to follow that criteria.

If passed by the General Assembly and approved by voters, the amendment would give the State House sole authority over the congressional map’s configuration of districts as long as they follow federal guidelines.

Those who oppose the map would still have the ability to challenge it under the constitutional amendment, and the General Assembly could immediately move the lawsuit up to the Maryland Supreme Court to shorten the litigation process.

How will the special session work?

The official guidelines for the session limit the number of people who can testify before the House Government, Labor and Elections and Senate Education, Energy and the Environment committees to 50.

In response, the Joint Republican Caucus issued statements condemning the protocol and what they characterized as lack of preparedness from Democratic leadership.

“It is shocking how little information has been available, not just to the members, but to the general public,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr., R-Upper Eastern Shore, said in a statement. “It shows how little the Democratic majority values public participation in the legislative process. In any other industry, this would be considered malpractice; but in Annapolis, it is business as usual.”

Beyond the limit on testimony, presiding officers will be able to select who they would like to speak on the bill if more than 50 people have registered to do so.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, R-Allegany, said in a Wednesday statement that members of his party are “very concerned,” adding that the bill hearing is “obviously intended to be a brief and meaningless formality.”

Ferguson presided when the state last redistricted, in 2022 under Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. Moore and Peña-Melnyk have never undertaken the task of redrawing the state’s congressional or legislative maps.

On the Maryland Democratic Party’s podcast “Burn the Talking Points” Friday, Ferguson said his hesitancy to move forward with a completely new map came from a desire to maintain the state’s current 7-1 standings rather than risk more Republicans in office.

“Can you imagine if we had to go into a special session to create a 6-2 map right now, and what the outrage would be of us giving another Republican to Donald Trump in Maryland? That’s what I couldn’t live with,” he said.

What are the bill’s chances?

Should the bill pass out of the joint-committee hearing, which is likely, it will face hurdles once it hits the chamber floor, where there is expected to be protracted debate.

For the amendment to appear on the ballot, the legislation needs to be approved by three-fifths of each chamber.

The bill is expected to succeed in the 141-member House of Delegates, which handily passed legislation that would have given Democrats an 8-0 map early on during the regular session.

The 47-member Senate is likely to be trickier.

Ferguson, who has previously stated that he doesn’t advance bills that don’t have enough votes to pass out of his chamber, did not send the redistricting bill that passed the House to any standing committee for a hearing, and it was never debated on the floor.

Though the convention of a special legislative session signals that there are enough votes for the bill to pass out of the Senate, there are several Democratic senators representing purple districts — notably Sens. Dawn Gile, D-Anne Arundel; Katie Fry Hester, D-Howard and Montgomery; and Mary-Dulany James, D-Harford — who occasionally vote with Republicans and are facing challengers in November.

If the proposed amendment does ultimately receive approval in both chambers, that leaves limited time for public education campaigns regarding what it would accomplish. There will be just 11 weeks between the special session’s end and the start of early voting, and officials at the Maryland State Board of Elections have to send out mail-in ballots by Sept. 21.

Sen. Bryan Simonaire, R-Anne Arundel, has already stated that he will run a “public awareness blitz” across media platforms on the ballot question, which he called the “Voter Suppression Act of 2026” in a July 20 press release. 

“The Democratic Party loudly condemns voter suppression when it suits their narrative—yet they are hypocritically spearheading the single largest voter suppression campaign in Maryland’s modern history,” Simonaire, who is not seeking reelection, said in a statement.

Should voters approve the ballot question, Marylanders are unlikely to see a new congressional map anytime soon. An official in the senate president’s office told The Daily Record that the chamber is not looking to redraw districts in the near future. 

What else will likely come up?

During the three-day session, the legislature is also expected to override Moore’s vetoes on several bills and will address a separate voter referendum that is slated to appear on voters’ ballots twice.

The General Assembly passed both the House and Senate versions of the Arbitration Reform for State Employees act of 2026 during the regular session. If approved by voters, it would require that memoranda of understanding between the state and the union be funded in the governor’s annual budget proposal. 

These agreements could include changes to wages, hours, fringe benefits and health benefits, among other terms of employment. 

Because Moore signed both the House and Senate versions of the bill, the question is to appear on the ballot twice. The General Assembly will take up a bill to withdraw and repeal one version of the question.

This has also frustrated members of the Republican Party, who have been denied the ability to introduce legislation dealing with other issues during August’s three-day session.

Hershey said in a Wednesday statement that the Democratic majority is “making the rules up as they go along.”

“It is important to note that their exceptions to these rules will still do nothing to ease the struggle for the people they represent. Nothing on affordability, nothing on energy, just nothing for Marylanders,” he said. “It is clear the well-being of our citizens is the furthest thing from their mind.”