A House of Delegates debate over congressional redistricting — marked by a high level of civility — went on for roughly four hours Monday night, but ended exactly as planned by Democrats.
The House, in a voice vote, gave preliminary approval to House Bill 2100, the proposed constitutional amendment that would — if passed by the legislature and approved by voters in November — set standards for the state’s congressional districts.
Republicans entered the 2026 special session Monday knowing the outcome is inevitable, with Democrats holding a supermajority in both chambers. The option for Republicans was a fight over amendments — 20 of them over four hours — that stretched the march to a preliminary vote late into the night.
Most proposals were defeated in mostly party line votes. Another half dozen were ruled out of order.
“It’s very difficult to continue doing that,” said House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany). “I think every member of our caucus believes firmly that we were elected to represent a constituency who does not want to see the direction Maryland’s going.
“I love Maryland. We are going in a really bad direction. Not just the last two years, the last four years. We’re going in a really bad direction over time,” he said. “I can’t think of hardly anything that’s really going right.”
Adding to Republican frustrations was an edict from House and Senate leaders prohibiting any legislation not related to redistricting from being introduced. They ordered the Department of Legislative Services not to draft those bills.
“We’re here to fight this, we’re here to make noise,” said Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore). “We’re here to make this as uncomfortable as possible for the Democrat supermajority to push through something as partisan as this issue is.”
Hershey, during a morning Senate session, temporarily blocked the introduction of the Senate version of HB 2100 using a rule that requires bills to be delivered to the secretary of the Senate four hours before introduction. The move required the Senate to reconvene in the afternoon to introduce the bill.
Despite limiting the subject matter to redistricting, even some related bills didn’t make the cut.
Del. Christopher Eric Bouchat (R-Carroll) proposed legislation that called for creation of a 188-member body of citizens, elected every 10 years to set legislative and congressional district boundaries after each decennial census.
Bouchat’s bill did not get a hearing.
“My hope was that we could balance out what the Democrats are going to pass with Citizens being sovereign over the redistricting process,” Bouchat said in a text message. “It is just raw partisan politics from the national level having more influence than what is best for Maryland citizens regardless of what part of the state you live.”
Bouchat reverted to his practice at the tail end of the 2026 legislative session: After attending the morning session, he left Annapolis before the debate in the House. He attributed his absence to the decision not to give his bill a hearing.
Republicans planned on using the session to promote bills aimed at affordability issues — high utility prices, car registration fees, gas tax holidays and other issues. They offered those ideas and others in amendment after amendment.
Other amendments attempted to add recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings to the Maryland Constitution, or impose temporary pauses on data centers or related infrastructure.
One proposal, from Del. Thomas S. Hutchinson (R-Lower Shore), called for a vote on secession in the nine Eastern Shore counties.
“The passage of House Bill 2100 will nearly eliminate the possibility of a member of the House of Representatives to reside on the Eastern Shore,” Hutchinson said. “We do not want our representatives — nothing against Howard or Anne Arundel County — but we don’t want them from there because the lifestyle is so different.”
The idea is not new. It was once proposed by Republican Sen. Richard F. Colburn.
Hutchinson held up the flag Colburn had made for the new area he called MarDelVa. Hutchinson said he believed portions of Delaware and coastal Virginia would likely want to join to form their own state.
It was all part of the first day of what could be a three-day session over a bill to overturn a 2022 court decision that hamstrung Maryland lawmakers from joining the national hyper-partisan midcycle congressional redistricting that dominated state legislatures across the country.
The bill proposes amending the Maryland Constitution to get around a 2022 decision by Judge Lynne Battaglia that struck down a 2021 congressional map. Battaglia’s decision cited language in the state constitution that requires districts be compact, contiguous and mindful of jurisdictional and geographic boundaries — language that had always been interpreted to only apply to legislative districts, not congressional districts.
On Monday, House Majority Leader David Moon (D-Montgomery) referred to Battaglia as “an errant judge” and the decision “novel.”
House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) said the bill would return congressional redistricting standards to what was in place prior to 2022.
Members of the House are scheduled to return Tuesday at 9 a.m. for what could be another hour or two of debate and a final vote on the bill. The timing could allow the Senate to hold a preliminary and final vote Tuesday, foregoing the need for a Wednesday session.
The bill must pass by Wednesday to make a deadline to be added to ballots across the state and still meet a certification deadline. Because it’s a proposed constitutional amendment, the measure must go before voters this fall.
Republicans, however, hint at the potential for a legal challenge.
The special session represents a turnaround from earlier this year.
A panel created by Gov. Wes Moore recommended a plan to redraw the congressional districts. The goal was to make the Eastern Shore district represented by Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st) more vulnerable to a Democratic challenger.
The proposal sailed through the House but disappeared into the black hole of a rules committee in the Senate. A second bill, similar to that considered Monday night, met a similar fate at the hands of Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore).
In May, Ferguson had a change of heart.
The U.S. Supreme Court gutted parts of the Voting Rights Act and President Donald Trump successfully ousted five Republican state lawmakers in Indiana who had blocked redistricting efforts in that state. Ferguson also faced a tough re-election bid with an upstart primary challenger who adopted the redistricting issue as part of his campaign.
“These acts changed the calculus, and that’s why we’re here,” Ferguson told reporters Monday morning. “During this special session, we are clarifying the rules by which we will draw maps to ensure we are using the standards the state used for decades prior.
“We’ve known that we cannot consider any future map in the near term or the long term without first addressing the uncertainty that the 2022 Battaglia decision created,” he said. “If we want a future legislature to have meaningful options, we must address this issue first, and we have to make sure that Marylanders have a say in that process.”
And while Republicans see the bill as going too far, others believe it doesn’t go far enough.
A coalition of progressive groups rallied outside the State House Monday morning.
“What we’re seeking now is … for the maps to be amended so that the decisions from that governor’s redistricting commission can be added to the legislation and amendment that’s being proposed,” said Daryl Jones, co-leader of the Transformative Justice Coalition.
A map is not expected in this special session, not even from Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles) who was a vocal proponent of new maps earlier this year, walking out of a session in protest at one point and later refusing to participate in procedural roll calls to establish a quorum.
Ellis said drawing a map “is a complicated thing.” He said he was happy the legislature had returned to take up the bill to address the Battaglia ruling.
“We’re doing it, right? So I’m happy. I can be pleased,” Ellis said Monday. “It’s not endless discontent.”
— Maryland Matters reporter William Ford contributed to this report.