ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland won't take steps to gerrymander its lone Republican Congressional district.
In a letter obtained by Politico, Senate President Bill Ferguson wrote to colleagues that "the Senate is choosing not to move forward with mid-cycle congressional redistricting."
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"Despite deeply shared frustrations about the state of our country," he continued, "mid-cycle redistricting for Maryland presents a reality where the legal risks are too high, the timeline for action is dangerous, the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic, and the certainty of our existing map would be undermined."
The discussion of a possible special session to redistrict comes as Republican-leaning states like Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina redraw maps to add more safely Republican Congressional seats.
"I don't love having to do this, but it's necessary," he'd said at the time. "I'm tired of bringing a pencil to a knife fight."
Ferguson, in his letter, notes the legal challenges to the redistricting in 2021 and the likelihood that any new map would invite further legal challenges, as well as the difficulty of the timing, saying it's unlikely a map would be in place for the 2026 midterms.
"I have spoken with my counterparts in other states," added Ferguson. "One theme has echoed throughout all these conversations that I do not think is being captured in national discussions regarding redistricting — several Republican states are resisting pressure to redistrict and are mostly able to do so because Maryland and other Democratic states are not redistricting either."
House Republicans issued statements, House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said, "Senate President Ferguson has realized what we have known for years: Maryland is already one of the most partisanly gerrymandered states in the U.S., and trying to redistrict even further to wholly eliminate the voices of Republicans and trying to subvert the votes of the Eastern Shore solely in an effort to play D.C. politics is a terrible idea."
“We agree with Senate President Ferguson that for Democratic leaders to gerrymander out the only Republican in our Federal Delegation would be the height of hypocrisy, especially when roughly 40% of Marylanders vote Republican,” added House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy.
House Speaker Adrienne Jones, a Democrat, also released a statement on Wednesday on mid-cycle redistricting.
"Mid-cycle redistricting should concern anyone who cares about the health of our democratic institutions and the future of fair elections," she said. "Closing the door now on the mid-cycle redistricting debate denies our constituents the opportunity to voice their opinion on an issue that goes far beyond their district lines."
"As I've stated before," Jones added, "My door remains open to my colleagues in the Senate and to the Governor to jointly pursue efforts to protect our democracy."
Governor Wes Moore also responded to the letter with his thoughts on redistricting, ""We are not going to bend the knee to the Trump administration. We're not going to allow the Trump administration to rig the rules so they can try to win an election. Because they know they cannot win election on policy, so they're just going to try to alter the setup of an election."
His statement continued, saying, "And so I will work with anyone to include not just Bill Ferguson, but everybody in the Maryland State Senate and everybody in the House of Delegates to make sure that in this moment, Maryland does not cow down. And Maryland understands the assignment is ensuring that we can have fair maps that people can vote on next November."
