Maryland gerrymandering has produced one of the most lopsided congressional maps in the country — seven Democratic seats to one Republican — and in 2026 state Democrats are pushing to redraw those lines again through a constitutional amendment that would clear away the legal precedent blocking a more aggressive map. Whether that amendment reaches the November 2026 ballot depends on a standoff between Governor Wes Moore and Senate President Bill Ferguson that has stretched most of the year.
How Maryland’s Current Map Came to Be
Maryland’s eight congressional seats were split evenly between the parties through much of the 1990s. The 2002 cycle moved the map to a 6-2 Democratic edge. The 2012 map went further: Democratic lawmakers redrew the 6th Congressional District in Western Maryland to flip it from solidly Republican to Democratic-leaning, producing the 7-1 split that has held ever since.1Maryland Matters. Congressional Redistricting: A History of Jumping the Bay
The 6th District redraw drew national attention for its scale. The district was overpopulated by just 17,414 people after the 2010 Census, but map-drawers moved 711,162 people into or out of it, more than 40 times what population equality required.2Brennan Center for Justice. Maryland’s Extreme Gerrymander The redraw removed roughly 66,000 Republicans and added about 24,000 Democrats. A federal district court later described it as “the single greatest alteration of voter makeup in any district in the Nation following the 2010 census.”3League of Women Voters of Maryland. Maryland Gerrymandering and the 6th District Emergency Commission
Why Federal Courts Won’t Step In
Republican voters challenged the 6th District map in 2013 in Benisek v. Lamone, arguing the redraw retaliated against them for their political views. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court twice. In 2018, the Court affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction because plaintiffs had waited too long — six years and three elections — to seek emergency relief.4Supreme Court of the United States. Benisek v. Lamone, 585 U.S. (2018) A district court then ruled the map unconstitutional in November 2018 and ordered new lines for 2020.3League of Women Voters of Maryland. Maryland Gerrymandering and the 6th District Emergency Commission
The Supreme Court consolidated Maryland’s appeal with Rucho v. Common Cause, a challenge to Republican-drawn maps in North Carolina. On June 27, 2019, in a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims are “political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”5SCOTUSblog. Rucho v. Common Cause The majority found no “judicially discoverable and manageable standards” for deciding when partisanship in redistricting crosses a constitutional line.6Supreme Court of the United States. Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. (2019) Justice Elena Kagan, in dissent, warned that the ruling gave a “green light” to partisan manipulation. The Maryland case was vacated and remanded for dismissal.7Brennan Center for Justice. Lamone v. Benisek
After Rucho, any legal fight over partisan gerrymandering in Maryland had to be brought under the state constitution, in state court.
The State-Court Ruling That Still Governs the Map
After the 2020 Census, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly passed a new congressional plan (HB 1) on December 8, 2021. Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed it the next day, and the legislature overrode the veto within hours.8Loyola Law School. Maryland Redistricting The map was designed to give Democrats all eight congressional seats.
Republican plaintiffs, including Delegate Kathy Szeliga, challenged it in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. On March 25, 2022, Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia struck the map down, calling it “an outlier and a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”9Maryland Matters. Judge Throws Out Congressional Map, Orders Legislature to Try Again Next Week It was a case of first impression in Maryland.
Battaglia’s central holding is the one that matters for what happens next. She read Article III, Section 4 of the Maryland Constitution — which requires districts to be “adjoining territory,” “compact in form,” and of “substantially equal population” with “due regard” for political subdivision boundaries — as applying to congressional districts, not just state legislative districts. She also found violations of the Maryland Declaration of Rights: Article 7 (free elections), Article 24 (equal protection), and Article 40 (free speech).10Courthouse News Service. Szeliga v. Lamone, Memorandum Opinion Partisanship, she wrote, was the “predominant factor” behind the map, and Republican voters had been removed from the 1st Congressional District with “near surgical precision.”
The legislature drew a remedial map (SB 1012), which Hogan signed on April 4, 2022. That map preserved the 7-1 Democratic advantage, and Republican Andy Harris kept the 1st District as the state’s lone GOP seat.8Loyola Law School. Maryland Redistricting The Battaglia ruling remains the binding state-law standard: any future map has to satisfy the compactness reading she laid down.
The 2026 Push to Redraw Again
The current effort began outside Maryland. In July 2025, President Donald Trump urged Texas Governor Greg Abbott to pursue a mid-decade redistricting, and Texas approved new maps that could produce as many as five additional Republican-leaning seats for the 2026 midterms.11Center for American Progress. Trump Ordered Texas to Gerrymander 5 New Republican-Leaning Congressional Districts House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called for a “forceful, creative and decisive” Democratic response, openly endorsing gerrymandered maps in blue states until national reform is enacted.12Politico. Hakeem Jeffries on Voting Rights Act, Gerrymandering, and Redistricting
Governor Wes Moore established the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission on November 4, 2025. The five-member panel was chaired by U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks and included former Attorney General Brian Frosh, Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss, and designees of the House Speaker and Senate President.13Maryland Matters. Moore Forges Ahead With Redistricting Effort, Announcing Advisory Commission
On January 21, 2026, the commission voted 3-2 to recommend a new map. It targeted the 1st Congressional District by pulling Republican-leaning areas out of Cecil and Harford Counties, adding Democratic voters from parts of Howard and Anne Arundel Counties, and reaching across the Chesapeake Bay to the Eastern Shore. The district’s 2024 presidential margin would have swung from a 17-point Trump advantage to a 14-point Democratic advantage, and Rep. Harris would have been drawn into the same district as first-term Democratic Rep. Sarah Elfreth.14Center for Politics, University of Virginia. Crossing the Bay: Maryland Democrats’ 8-0 Proposal Senate President Bill Ferguson, a commission member, voted no, calling the map “objectively unconstitutional.”15WBAL-TV. State Redistricting Commission Passes New Map: What’s Next
The Bill, the Senate Blockade, and the Amendment Strategy
House Bill 488 was introduced on January 23, 2026. It would have clarified that the Maryland Constitution’s compactness and contiguity requirements apply only to state legislative districts, granted the Maryland Supreme Court original jurisdiction over congressional redistricting disputes, and put new district boundaries in place for 2026 and beyond.16Maryland General Assembly. HB 488 – Election Districts The House passed it 99-37 on February 2, 2026.17The Hill. Maryland Democrats Advance Redistricting Map
The bill stalled in the Senate. Ferguson refused to move it, referring it to the Senate Rules Committee, a body that holds no hearings, does not meet regularly, and has no staff.18Maryland Matters. Redistricting Bill Sails Through House, Faces Troubled Waters in the Senate “This is something that doesn’t come up until the next census, which is in 2030,” he said in late March. House Democrats tried to attach redistricting-related constitutional amendments to SB 0005, a bipartisan bill on filling legislative vacancies; the move cost that bill its bipartisan support, and Ferguson signaled the Senate would not take it up.19WYPR. Maryland House Makes Final Redistricting Plea to Senate Lawmakers
Ferguson’s resistance rested on two arguments. In an October 2025 letter to his caucus, he warned that a Maryland redraw could set off retaliatory redraws in Republican-controlled states with far larger congressional delegations, potentially costing Democrats a net 20 seats nationally.20Maryland Matters. Moore Pushes for Congressional Redistricting, Sets Up Confrontation With Senate He also pointed to the Maryland Supreme Court, where five of seven justices were appointed by former Governor Hogan. A Ferguson spokesperson said, “Our top legal concern has always been the risk of not gaining a seat, but losing a seat and going backward.” That fear grew after the Virginia Supreme Court overturned a Democratic-favoring map in that state.21Politico. Maryland Democrats Redistricting Gerrymandering
By late May 2026, Ferguson said he was in “active conversations” with Senate Democrats about pursuing a constitutional amendment for the November 2026 ballot instead.22The Daily Record. Bill Ferguson on Maryland Election Redistricting The amendment would state that Article III, Section 4’s compactness and contiguity requirements apply only to state legislative districts, removing the barrier Battaglia identified. It would need three-fifths supermajorities in both chambers to reach the ballot.23Democracy Docket. Maryland Democrats Prepare Special Session to Counter GOP Gerrymanders Ferguson has said that even if it passes, he will not consider an actual new congressional map in a special session; the amendment would open the way for a new map to be drawn in the 2027 regular session, in time for the 2028 elections.24WYPR. Maryland Senate Democrats Will Convene to Discuss Redistricting Special Session
Dates to Watch
No special session has been called as of late June 2026. House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk has asked delegates to hold two windows open: July 16-22 and July 30-August 5. She and Ferguson planned to meet after the June 23 primary to decide whether to proceed.25Maryland Matters. House Sets Target Dates for Special Session The deadline to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot is August 4.26Conduit Street. Special Session Talk Grows as Leaders Eye July Timeline
The current delegation is unchanged: seven Democrats and Rep. Andy Harris of the 1st District, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus and has said he is ready to challenge any new redistricting legislation in court.27The Hill. Moore-Ferguson Redistricting Dispute Analysts at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics have noted that Republicans “have easier opportunities for drawing new gerrymanders than Democrats” because many blue states have adopted independent commissions or constitutional limits on legislative map-drawing.28Center for Politics, University of Virginia. As Redistricting War Looms, Republicans Have More Plausible Opportunities Than Democrats Maryland’s Battaglia ruling is one such constitutional limit, and the amendment fight is about whether it stays that way.