House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) suggested Wednesday that Maryland state lawmakers will act soon to redraw the state’s House map as part of the Democrats’ effort to neutralize a Republican redistricting campaign being orchestrated by President Trump.
That option appeared to be dead in the water this week after Bill Ferguson, the Democratic president of Maryland’s Senate, issued a letter opposing a redistricting push, which has the backing of other top Democrats in the state.
But Jeffries said he’s been in talks with Gov. Wes Moore (D) and other Maryland Democrats — both in Congress and Annapolis — and strongly suggested they are poised to join the state-level battle over which party controls the House after next year’s midterms.
“Gov. Moore has been very clear that Maryland is prepared to respond … to the Trump-Republican effort to rig the midterm elections,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
“And it's my expectation — based on my conversations with Gov. Moore, my conversations with leadership in the Maryland General Assembly, and my conversations, certainly, with the Maryland congressional delegation — that the state of Maryland knows what the stakes are, understands the assignment, and as we are seeing in multiple other states beginning with California, will respond aggressively and appropriately, in short order."
With Republicans at risk of losing the House in next year’s elections, Trump has launched a campaign to pad his party’s slim lower-chamber majority by compelling a number of GOP-led states to redraw their maps in ways that pick off Democratic incumbents. Redistricting is typically done once every decade, after the decennial census, but Trump has accelerated the timeline in an effort to prevent Democrats from seizing the majority — and acquiring new powers to check his administration — in the final two years of his second term.
Trump’s effort began in Texas, where Republicans are now on track to gain as many as five new seats. Other red states — including Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina — are expected to follow suit.
Democrats have responded, with California, under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, pushing a ballot referendum empowering state lawmakers to draw new districts to counter the predicted GOP gains in Texas. California voters will vote on that initiative on Nov. 4.
Virginia Democrats announced this month that they will also redraw their map ahead of the 2026 midterms. And several other blue states — including Illinois, New York and Maryland — have been eyeing similar plans.
In Maryland, Ferguson seemed to sink the effort this week with his letter, which cited several reasons for his opposition to redistricting.
From a logistical standpoint, he expressed doubts that a new map could be adopted in time to impact next year’s elections. He also voiced reservations about the political motivations, comparing the partisan effort to gain advantage through mid-decade redistricting to historic gerrymandering in the South designed to disenfranchise Black voters.
“It is hypocritical to say that it is abhorrent to tactically shift voters based on race, but not to do so based on party affiliation,” he wrote.
Maryland has one Republican in the House, Rep. Andy Harris, who currently chairs the far-right Freedom Caucus. He represents the largely rural district encompassing the Eastern Shore.
Source: The Hill - News
