Republicans in the General Assembly said they will propose legislation to limit partisan redistricting, by creating a new independent redistricting commission and by codifying part of a 2022 court ruling that called for compact districts with commonsense boundaries.
The legislation, which would also prohibit mid-decade redistricting, was previewed by minority party leaders Thursday, one day after a special Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission met to begin the process of a possible mid-decade partisan redistricting.
“We believe that there’s a more fair and principled way to do this than what the governor is proposing,” said House Minority Leader Del. Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany). “That’s why we’ll intend to be offering again, either at a special session or in the beginning of the 2026 session, the Fair Districts for Maryland Act.”
Buckel unveiled highlights of the plan with Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr (R-Upper Shore) and Del. Jesse T. Pippy (R-Frederick) and Sen. Justin Ready (R-Frederick and Carroll), the minority whips in the House and Senate, respectively.
The Republican news conference followed Wednesday’s organizational meeting of the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee, which is scheduled to begin taking public testimony in a virtual meeting Friday, and again Tuesday.
The five-member commission appointed by Gov. Wes Moore (D) is on a fast track to make a recommendation on congressional redistricting, possibly in time for a special legislative session in the next few weeks.
“It’s disappointing to say at least that the governor is even going down this route, and we know exactly why he’s doing it,” Pippy told reporters. “We think it’s wrong, and that’s why we’re putting forth a plan to address this.”
Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle believe the commission will lead to a special session next month. Moore has not committed to calling a special session.
If Moore calls the House and Senate back, it would be the first special session since 2021, when lawmakers met for three days in December to redraw the congressional districts based on the 2020 U.S. Census.
The latest Republican proposal, as described, is based on previous legislation and a 2022 court ruling that struck down a version of the current congressional maps. It will also include language prohibiting future attempts at midcycle redistricting.
“First thing it will do is it will put into statute and affirm once and for all that the redistricting process is a once-a-decade process,” Buckel said. “Those will be the maps that get adopted as a result of that commission. They will last until the next United States Census.
“There won’t be this every two years, every four years, every five years, depending upon how the political winds blow, ability to go in and sort of mess with the maps and change people’s expectations,” he said.
Buckel said partisan redistricting is now driven by computer programmers who use voter registration and voting patterns to craft districts that resemble “some absurd crayon drawing.”
So a second part of the latest GOP bill reworks Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposal to create an independent redistricting commission. That plan, which called for a panel of Democrats, Republicans and independents not appointed by elected officials, was “a little complicated,” in Buckel’s words, and never made it out of committee.
Republicans now envision a commission drawn from the two major parties and unaffiliated voters, but “the voting strength of the system will be set up so that no one party can run roughshod over the other,” Buckel said.
Finally, the bill would codify part of a 2022 ruling that struck down the original set of maps drawn by the Legislative Redistricting Advisory Committee. Seven of the state’s eight districts in that plan favored Democrats and the eighth, the Eastern Shore-based 1st District, was drawn in such a way that it was more of a tossup than a solid Republican district that edged over the Bay Bridge into Annapolis to capture more Democratic voters.
Judge Lynn Battaglia struck that version down as “extreme partisan gerrymandering.” Her ruling mandated congressional maps to be compact and respect natural and political boundaries. The Maryland Constitution standard had at the time only applied to legislative districts.
Battaglia’s novel standard never made it to the Supreme Court of Maryland for review — lawmakers crafted a compromise map instead that cemented the current 7-1 split.
The Republican plan faces an uphill slog just to get to the floor, especially in a special session where alternative proposals and off-topic bills are typically sent to a rules committee to die.
The Democratic majority in the Senate appears, at least for now, to be uninterested in taking up mid-cycle redistricting. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said he and a majority of the 34-member Democratic Caucus do not support the midcycle redistricting being pushed by the governor. A Ferguson spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on the Republican plan.
Maryland is one of a growing number of states considering midcycle changes to its congressional districts, as parties jockey for any advantage ahead of the 2026 congressional elections.
Moore appointed a commission to review the issue. He and his handpicked panel claim the goal is to ensure the state’s three-year old districts are fair. But the panel, chaired by U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.),got off to a rocky start in its first meeting Wednesday.
“It’s probably one of the most disorganized kickoff meetings and organizational meetings that we’ve ever seen,” Hershey told reporters. “I think that’s because … governor has given no clear direction on what he wants this commission to do with respect to how they’re going to go out to the public, what they’re going to ask, what they’re going to show, or what is even going to be resolved by this commission.”
A second virtual meeting is scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m.
“This redistricting effort by Gov. Wes Moore is living up to the kabuki theater we expected,” Delegate Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), vice chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, in a statement.
“Scheduling a Zoom hearing on a Friday at 4:00 p.m. is intentionally inconvenient, just as people are finishing their work week and heading home to their families, not preparing for a multi-hour hearing,” Szeliga’s statement said. “Everyone knows that’s also the classic time to dump news the administration doesn’t want anyone to notice. This process is anything but accessible and transparent.”
Szeliga was a party in the successful 2022 redistricting lawsuit, and she said last week she plans on going to court to block any midcycle map that eliminates Republican representation.
Maryland’s mid-decade redistricting effort comes after Texas kicked off a redistricting effort that benefited Republicans. California followed with a process that benefited the Democratic Party, and other states have followed suit.
Moore has not been been specific about how the current congressional district maps are inequitable. He has said he wants to “pressure test” the state’s three-year-old maps. But he also linked the effort to the national partisan push.
“My commitment stays firm that we are going to make sure that we have fair maps inside the state of Maryland, and we are not going to bend the knee to Donald Trump,” Moore said at the end of October. He added that “a special session is not off the table, regardless of what anyone else says.”
Such an effort would likely focus on a redraw that would make the state’s only Republican held congressional seat more politically hospitable to a Democratic Party challenge.
Ready said “it’s absolutely the wrong thing to try to squelch the small amount of voice for a minority party in the state.”