Gov. Wes Moore (D) said he will not relent on his push to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts this year — but he will set it aside, briefly, to deliver his State of the State address Wednesday.
“My speech is going to be focused on the issues that this administration has been focused on” including economic growth and affordability, Moore said Tuesday.
“I think people are going to see and know that this issue is a very real priority to me,” he said of redistricting. “But I think we will also see that my priorities are … making sure that we can make this state more affordable, that we can make this state more economically competitive and that we can protect the people of this state.”
Moore said he also wants the state to continue to push back on “the additional assaults that we are seeing from Washington, D.C.”
“We know that we have a lot of work to do. We’re thankful for the momentum that we’re seeing in those areas,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We know we’re looking forward to working with the General Assembly to ensure all the goals and aspirations of the people of the state of Maryland have, we can continue to meet.”
For Moore, it is his fourth State of the State speech since his historic inauguration in 2023 as the state’s first Black governor. But Moore, who entered office on a wave of optimism, has seen his relationship with the legislature fray.
Two months ago, the General Assembly overrode more than a dozen of his vetoes, including his veto of a bill creating a task force to study reparations. Those votes followed a bruising 2025 session where Moore raised $1.6 billion in taxes and saw many of his legislative priorities stumble.
Legislators from Moore’s own party are angry over his creation of a slate committee that could be weaponized to support challengers in the primary who are more supportive of the governor’s agenda.
Since peaking in 2024, Moore’s job approval numbers have trended downward. In one recent survey, the number of people who strongly disapproved of his job performance outnumbered those who strongly approved, the first time that has happened since Moore was sworn in.
Moore’s speech comes at a time when he portrays the state and the country at an existential political crossroads.
The governor wants Maryland to redraw its eight congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to counter partisan redistricting in Republican states. The House last week approved a redistricting plan that would likely flip the state’s only Republican-held district to Democratic.
But that bill has stalled in the Senate, where it remains consigned to the Rules Committee.
At almost every turn, Moore has used traditional and new media appearances to pressure the Senate and its leader, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) to vote on the bill. In a meeting with reporters Tuesday, he again demanded that the Senate, led by Ferguson, bring redistricting legislation to the full Senate for a vote.
“My position hasn’t moved,” Moore said. “I think that we have to fight for democracy and that means we have to have a vote.”
Moore vowed he was “not going to move on. I’m not going to stop.”
But he also insisted that it would not be part of his address Wednesday.
Republicans and other critics say Moore is too focused on national politics, perhaps in service of higher aspirations. Moore is routinely mentioned as a potential candidate for president in 2028.
Ferguson, in a separate meeting with reporters Tuesday, said there are a host of issues on which legislators will work with Moore. But he said he is hoping the governor will touch on concerns about government operations.
“I’m hopeful that the governor will talk about some of the performance management actions that his administration will move forward to make sure that we are delivering on behalf of all Marylanders every single day regardless of what who’s in the White House,” Ferguson said
In recent months, department after department have received deficient, sometimes scathing, audits from legislative auditors. Many have been repeat audit findings.
“Just today we saw the story of MHEC [the Maryland Higher Education Commission] yet again has another program that has failed to deliver,” Ferguson said. “This is for a program that’s supposed to be having teachers receive scholarships so that we can have the highest quality individuals who are in our classrooms every day. And of course, now we find out that MHEC has failed to operate the program effectively, and people are getting stuck with bills.”
— Maryland Matters reporter Christine Condon contributed to this report.