Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday announced the creation of a commission to consider redrawing the state’s House map, the latest escalation in the nationwide fight over mid-decade redistricting.
“My commitment has been clear from day one — we will explore every avenue possible to make sure Maryland has fair and representative maps,” the Democratic governor said in a statement.
Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks will chair the five-member Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission, which will “organize public hearings, solicit public feedback, and make recommendations” to Moore, according to the statement.
Maryland’s current congressional map already favors Democrats, who hold seven of the state’s eight House seats. Rep. Andy Harris, the chair of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, is the lone Republican in the Maryland delegation, representing the 1st District on the state’s Eastern Shore.
State Democrats attempted to turn Harris’ deep-red district into a swing seat during the decennial redistricting process after the 2020 census. But a state judge blocked that map, calling it an “extreme partisan gerrymander” that violated the state constitution’s protections for fair elections.
Moore’s announcement Tuesday comes after the Democratic state Senate leader Bill Ferguson said last week that his chamber would not move forward with mid-decade redistricting, citing the risks of legal challenges and jeopardizing seats that Democrats already hold. Ferguson or his designee will have a spot on Moore’s redistricting commission.
Maryland’s senior senator, Democrat Chris Van Hollen, called the formation of the redistricting panel a “good step forward.”
“My preferred outcome would be national, nonpartisan congressional line drawing,” he said at the Capitol on Tuesday. “But we’ve tried to pass that bill [in Congress], and Republicans opposed us.”
Already this year, several GOP-led states have redrawn their congressional maps at President Donald Trump’s urging to help House Republicans pick up seats in 2026 and maintain their narrow majority. Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have enacted new maps, which, barring any successful legal challenges, would help Republicans collectively flip as many as seven seats in the midterms.
“We have a President that treats our democracy with utter contempt. We have a Republican Party that is trying to rig the rules in response to their terrible polling,” Alsobrooks said in a statement Tuesday.
Last week, Ohio approved a new House map that could help Republicans pick up two additional seats next year. And state legislators in Indiana are set to consider congressional redistricting next month, with some Republicans calling for the state to dismantle its two Democrat-held districts.
Democrats have attempted to counter the Republican efforts with redistricting moves of their own, although they have fewer options, with several Democrat-led states hampered by laws that hand over mapmaking powers to independent commissions.
California Democrats have sought to go around that restriction. Golden State voters are deciding Tuesday whether to approve a new map via a ballot measure known as Proposition 50. The new lines would improve Democratic chances of picking up as many as five GOP-held seats.
And Virginia Democrats took a first step last week toward potentially allowing commonwealth voters to decide on a new map through a referendum next year.
Nina Heller contributed to this report.
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