by Melissa O’Rourke
Democratic Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson on Tuesday blocked his party’s efforts to redraw congressional maps, halting plans to elect the state’s only Republican lawmaker.
On three pages letter to his Democratic colleagues, first reached by Politico, Ferguson said he would not support calling a special session to redraw maps and warned that trying to redistrict mid-cycle would be “disastrous.” Despite controlling the governor’s office and having majorities in both houses, Democrats cannot implement their redistricting plan without Ferguson’s support.
“If one place determines whether we stand up to Donald Trump or not, then we’ve lost from the start,” Ferguson told reporters on Tuesday, according to Washington Post..
Rep. Andy Harris, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and the state’s only Republican in Congress, was the target of a redistricting effort backed by Governor Wes Moore and Speaker of the House of Representatives Adrianna Jones.
In his letter, Ferguson referred to a 2021 effort by Democrats in Maryland that sought to eliminate Harris’ seat but was invalidated by a judge. He warned that hasty mid-cycle changes could face similar legal challenges.
“In Maryland, 31.5% of registered voters are registered Republicans,” Ferguson noted. “We don’t know how a court would evaluate a revised mid-cycle map and whether a court would take party affiliation into account.”
Ferguson also noted the similarity between partisan redistricting and racial gerrymandering.
“It is hypocritical to say that tactically switching voters based on race rather than party affiliation is abhorrent,” Ferguson wrote. “As we consider the risks and grounds for mid-cycle redistricting in Maryland, it is important to consider case law and the work of many to create racially equitable maps.”
“Despite deeply shared frustrations about the state of our country, mid-cycle redistricting for Maryland presents a reality in which the legal risks are too high, the timeline is dangerous, the downside risk for Democrats is catastrophic, and the certainty of our existing map would be undermined,” Ferguson added.
He also wrote that “in state after state, leaders are considering redrawing congressional maps mid-decade to disenfranchise minority party voters: no
because the census changed – not because the population changed – but because the political winds changed. The result was an all-out attack on the Democratic Party and the core of democracy.”
Ferguson’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Maryland’s redistricting debate comes after nationwide bipartisan opposition, with President Donald Trump encouraging Republican-led states to redistrict in his favor ahead of the 2026 elections. Texas, Missouri AND North Carolina have already approved fresh maps that could give the GOP a total of seven seats in the midterms.
Meanwhile, Democrats are mounting their own redistricting efforts.
IN Californiain November, voters will decide whether to transfer map-making authority to an independent commission in the state Legislature. If approved, the move could raise Democratic seats to five, reducing the state’s already diminutive Republican delegation to just four of 52. Virginia Democrats they also try to redraw the maps to gain a maximum of three additional slots.
However, in Illinois, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries faced a sturdy situation resistance from state Democrats over his push to redraw the already badly damaged congressional map.
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Melissa O’Rourke is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Zachery Schmidt is a digital editor Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Photo “Senator Bill Ferguson” by Senator Bill Ferguson.
