Dozens of Maryland Democratic lawmakers are proposing a plan to immediately redraw the state’s congressional district lines ahead of the 2026 election, a move that could potentially help Democrats net one additional U.S. House seat.
In addition to putting in place a temporary new map for 2026, the plan introduced Friday would then ask voters to bless the new district lines for the next two congressional elections as well. If voters don’t approve, the state will revert back to the maps it used during the 2024 election cycle.
The move comes as Democrats in the state Legislature navigate a stalemate over the idea of redrawing lines in time for this year’s election — and days after Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s redistricting commission recommended a new map that would make the state’s only Republican-held district more competitive.
Moore’s office told NBC News he supports the new legislation.
Maryland is one of a handful of blue and red states considering redistricting ahead of the midterm elections, part of a national battle that started last summer when Texas Republicans redrew their congressional lines to create additional GOP seats.
Maryland’s congressional delegation is currently heavily Democratic, 7-1. But some in the party would like to see an 8-0 map, though a state court in 2022 struck down an attempt to draw an 8-0 Democratic map as a partisan gerrymander.
State Del. David Moon, the majority leader in the state House of Delegates, told NBC News that the new map would be “substantially similar” to the map approved by the governor’s redistricting commission. And he framed the bill as a compromise that allows concerned Democrats to “meet the moment” amid a national redistricting tit for tat while allowing the state’s voters to have the final say over whether to use the maps in the future.
“We are sending over a thoughtful product that incorporates the feedback that we got from the Senate to the best of our ability,” Moon said.
“We need to meet the moment here in Maryland, and this bill is designed to meet the emergency we are facing, frankly, with Donald Trump asking many states to take a look at their redistricting plans mid-decade,” Moon continued.
Moon added that lawmakers had to “make a call for 2026, and of course, let the voters decide” as soon as possible about how to move forward because there “is not a mechanism to call a snap special election just to debate a redistricting map.”
Moore and Democratic leaders in the state House of Delegates want Maryland to redraw its congressional lines now to blunt the effects of Republican-led redraws in states like Texas, Missouri and North Carolina.
But Bill Ferguson, the Democratic president of the state Senate, has repeatedly pushed back, arguing the Senate Democratic caucus wouldn’t support the move. Ferguson says redistricting would be a political risk and that it was up to Maryland Democrats to bring the temperature down instead of joining the national redistricting fight.
Ferguson, through a spokesman, declined to comment about the new legislation.
Moore met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Capitol Hill Thursday and subsequently spoke with reporters about redistricting. Asked about the stalemate between pro-redistricting Democrats and Ferguson, the governor told reporters: “I believe in democracy. I believe in letting people’s voices be heard, and I know that Senate President Ferguson does as well.”
“I stand in a full faith and belief that the [Senate] president is not going to suppress democracy. He believes in democracy. So I believe, I have full faith he’s going to let democracy show itself,” Moore added.
The legislation, if passed, would almost certainly spark a legal challenge.
Moon told NBC News that the House of Delegates’ lawyers “believe this is a sound and constitutional bill” and noted that the bill would allow the Legislature to immediately put any challenge directly to the state Supreme Court so that a ruling could come quickly.
