Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer and Jamie Raskin are inserting themselves into the state’s redistricting combat, escalating strain on state lawmakers and the senate president to take up the mid-decade redrawing of congressional traces forward of the 2026 midterms.
The 2 distinguished Maryland Democrats despatched a four-page letter to the whole Maryland Normal Meeting Monday, the place they framed their endorsement of redrawing the state’s maps as a strategy to rebuff the president’s “authoritarian attack on democratic elections and voting rights” whereas casting the combat as an “ethical moral and political imperative” to behave.
That nationwide effort has been stymied in Maryland, the place the state’s Senate president, Invoice Ferguson, has rejected the push to alter maps within the state.
“We write today to applaud the governor’s redistricting initiative and urge you to move forward to explore what we can do as a state to help prevent the imminent disaster of President Trump determining the results of the 2026 congressional elections through aggressive mid-decade gerrymandering and therefore clinching control of the U.S. House of Representatives before a single vote is even cast,” the lawmakers write.
The letter comes every week after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) introduced the creation of a redistricting advisory fee that’s anticipated to solicit suggestions from Marylanders on whether or not the state ought to transfer ahead with redrawing maps. Democrats dominate the state’s congressional delegation and if the occasion is profitable in redrawing the maps it might solely decide up a single seat — at present occupied by Republican Rep. Andy Harris, who chairs the Home Freedom Caucus.
Whereas the state’s high Democrats, together with Moore and Maryland Home Speaker Adrienne Jones, are all on board with exploring redistricting, Ferguson has remained a holdout.
Two weeks in the past Ferguson despatched his personal letter to dozens of state lawmakers bucking his occasion and outlining why the Maryland Senate wouldn’t take up the trouble. A part of his rationale was that the Maryland Supreme Courtroom is filled with a number of justices appointed by Moore’s successor, former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. He means that not solely raises the chance that any new maps that give Democrats an 8-0 benefit could possibly be struck down, however it might set off a lack of Democratic seats within the state, one thing he known as “the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic.”
Ferguson’s workplace acknowledged it had obtained the letter however didn’t remark. The Baltimore Solar was the primary to report on the letter.
Moore, a possible 2028 presidential hopeful, stated in an look on CBS “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Maryland shouldn’t stand on the sidelines as different states, particularly Republican-led states, soar into redistricting.
“If other states are going to have this process and go through this- go through this journey of identifying whether or not they have fair maps in a mid-decade cycle, then so should Maryland,” Moore stated. “I’m just not sure why we should be playing by a different set of rules than Texas, or than Florida, or than Ohio or all these other places.”
There’s been strain mounting on Maryland to maneuver for weeks, and Ferguson is seen because the occasion’s greatest obstacle to transferring ahead. Democrats’ resounding victories final week in Virginia and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races, in addition to the overwhelming passage of a poll initiative handed by California voters to redraw state traces to select up 5 liberal-leaning seats to counteract an identical transfer in Texas to internet 5 Republican-leaning seats, is ramping up the urgency to behave.
Hoyer and Raskin’s letter calls Ferguson out by identify and makes an attempt to undercut a few of his causes for hesitating on transferring ahead.
“While Senator Ferguson is obviously right that there is an element of uncertainty in all litigation, there are some well-established doctrines that courts follow out of deference to the legislature’s constitutional power over redistricting,” the lawmakers write. “Chief among these is the principle that, when a court strikes down a newly enacted map as unlawful, the legislature must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to remedy the violation.”
The letter additionally seems to be aimed toward pressuring Ferguson by energizing a number of the state lawmakers that he leads, probably ramping up the stakes they might transfer in opposition to him.
“We don’t need to remind you that Marylanders have paid a heavy price during the first year of the second Trump Administration,” they write, itemizing off gadgets together with 15,000 federal staff which have been fired since Trump returned to energy and hundreds extra employees and federal contractors which have been furloughed for the reason that shutdown started greater than a month in the past.
The memo additionally asks state lawmakers three questions they need to reply as to whether or not they deem the redistricting combat as imminent. “Are we in the fight of our lives to defend American democracy and freedom and our Constitution, Bill of Rights and rule of law?… is it an ethical, moral and political imperative to use every lawful means at our disposal to fight back…: can we successfully and lawfully redistrict to respond to these GOP assaults?”
To all three questions, Raskin and Hoyer write, “We believe the answer is yes.”
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