Dems Put State’s Lone GOP House Seat In Crosshairs With Redistricting Ballot Measure

Maryland Democrats voted this week to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would pave the way for eliminating the state’s lone Republican-held congressional district before the 2028 election.

The measure passed largely along party lines, clearing the House of Delegates 96-38 and the Senate 32-13 before being signed by Democratic Governor Wes Moore.

If voters approve the amendment this November, lawmakers would gain significantly broader authority to redraw Maryland’s congressional map ahead of the 2028 elections, allowing Democrats to target the state’s only Republican-held House seat, represented by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Maryland Democrats currently hold seven of the state’s eight congressional seats.

The proposal would not immediately redraw district lines and would not affect the 2026 elections. Instead, it would remove state constitutional requirements that congressional districts be compact and respect natural boundaries and political subdivisions, leaving future maps subject primarily to federal legal standards.

Democrats argue the amendment is necessary to respond to Republican redistricting efforts across the country.

“I continue to believe that our country needs national redistricting reform. But until that happens, inaction is not an option,” Moore said in a statement. “Maryland will not be caught flat-footed while Republicans engage in political redlining that guts decades of progress that the generations before us fought for.”

Maryland House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk added, “Maryland cannot remain on the sidelines because of uncertainty in our own constitutional language.”

The amendment marks a significant shift for Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, who earlier this year resisted calls from fellow Democrats to redraw congressional districts before the 2026 midterms. Ferguson had warned that aggressively redrawing the map could backfire in court after a Maryland judge rejected Democrats’ 2021 congressional map, finding it violated the state constitution by excessively favoring one political party.

His position changed after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck portions of the Voting Rights Act, a decision Ferguson said opened the door for additional Republican redistricting efforts in Southern states and changed the legal landscape surrounding congressional maps.

If approved, the amendment would remove the constitutional provisions that complicated Democrats’ earlier map, making it substantially more difficult to challenge future congressional districts under Maryland law.

Republicans blasted the proposal as an openly partisan attempt to eliminate the state’s lone GOP congressional district. “Just because we can go ultra-partisan doesn’t mean we should go ultra-partisan,” Republican Delegate Kevin Hornberger said during floor debate.

Rep. Harris, whose Eastern Shore-based district is widely expected to become the primary target of any future redraw, said the amendment would fracture rural communities by combining them with heavily Democratic suburban and urban areas. He also predicted any new congressional map would face another court challenge if voters approve the amendment.

The constitutional amendment will appear on Maryland ballots during the November midterm election, with voters ultimately deciding whether the legislature should receive expanded authority to redraw the state’s congressional districts before the 2030 census.