Questions 3: Voters to decide if Maryland can join the national redistricting battle

BALTIMORE, MD — Maryland voters are set to decide on Question 3, which people on both sides of the aisle are calling the biggest topic of this election cycle.

Currently, the Maryland Constitution places limits on how congressional district maps can be drawn, requiring them to be compact and contiguous. Question 3 would remove those constraints, giving whichever party controls the state house, currently Democrats, more freedom to draw maps that could benefit their party.

Congressional district maps play a major role in which party has an advantage in winning an election.

"Question 3 is bigger than the gubernatorial race. I mean, let's be honest, it is the race that people are watching," State Sen. J.B. Jennings said.

Jennings, a Republican representing Baltimore and Harford counties, has been urging voters to reject the constitutional amendment, warning of what it could mean for the lone Republican-leaning district in the state.

Jennings argued the measure is designed to eliminate that district.

"If you don't like gerrymandering and you like compact tight districts, then you don't like this bill. And that's really what it's going to do, what they're trying to do is take or steal District 1," Jennings said.

Democrats have been working toward redistricting changes for months. Gov. Wes Moore began the conversation about a year ago, but the voters must decide first.

Del. Marlon Amprey, a Democrat representing Baltimore City, framed the measure as an update to align Maryland with other states.

"So the way I like to think of Question 3 is simply ensuring that we are up to date with the current laws across the nation on how mapping takes place, the way that they drew congressional maps in Texas, the way they've drawn congressional maps in Florida," Amprey said.

When asked why Maryland shouldn't engage in the same redistricting practices as other states, Jennings pushed back.

"It goes back to when I was a kid, and my parents would say to me, two wrongs don't make a right. What Texas did was wrong, what California has done is wrong, and every other state that has followed has been wrong," Jennings said.

Amprey was also asked about the argument that Question 3 is aimed at countering President Donald Trump. The earliest a new map could go into effect in Maryland is 2028, when Trump would not be on the ballot.

"I highlight the president, but he has a whole regime. The reality is that Trump is not doing any of this alone, right? Trump is doing this with the power of the Speaker, the current Speaker of the House. He's doing it with the power of governors and other individuals who have decided they are siding with the MAGA form of Republicanism," Amprey said.

"The reality is, the Republican Party has said, we now stand with these values and these morals. So we have to be ready," Amprey said.

Voters will decide on Tuesday.

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