Ferguson unswayed by House leader to pursue midcycle redistricting in MD

Senate President Bill Ferguson was unmoved to pursue midcycle redistricting Wednesday during a meeting he took with U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in Annapolis.

“I appreciated meeting with Leader Jeffries this morning,” Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, said in a statement following the roughly 45-minute conversation. “It’s precisely because we want leader Jeffries in the majority that most members in the Senate Democratic Caucus do not support moving forward with mid-cycle redistricting that will backfire in our state courts and lose Democrats in Congress.”

Earlier this month, the Maryland House of Delegates passed legislation to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm election to deliver an 8-0 map in favor of Democrats in the U.S. House — following the lead of several Republican states urged to do so by President Donald Trump.

The bill, which is currently in the Senate Rules Committee, would not only reconfigure the state’s congressional boundaries but would also put forth a ballot referendum to allow Maryland voters to determine if that map should only remain in effect for the 2026 election, or if it would also apply in 2028 and 2030.

Currently, nine of 10 seats in Maryland’s congressional delegation, including both Senate seats, are held by Democrats.

Jeffries, D-NY, met with Ferguson Wednesday after the congressional minority leader said on CNN’s “What Matters” that he isn’t “convinced” that the state lawmaker will be successful in holding his ground against Gov. Wes Moore and national Democrats, and that he would “have to have a conversation with him.”

“We know we have majority support right now as we speak in the Maryland state Senate, and all we’re asking President Ferguson to do is allow Democracy to prevail,” Jeffries said during the TV appearance. 

Because the bill contains a constitutional amendment, 29 Senate votes are needed for it to pass.

A source with knowledge of the Senate and what was discussed during the meeting said Wednesday that the chamber has “well below the threshold” of the necessary 29 votes, adding that Ferguson explained that to Jeffries during their meeting.

Though Ferguson said the votes are not there to pass the map, Jeffries appeared to challenge that sentiment in a statement released after his visit.

“Bill Ferguson authentically believes that the votes don’t exist in the State Senate to move forward,” Jeffries said. “The only way to find out is to allow an immediate up-or-down vote on the Senate floor with respect to the new congressional map passed by the House of Delegates.”

The new map passed largely along party lines in the House chamber, where Republicans argued that Democrats are attempting to oust the state’s sole GOP representative in the congressional delegation, Andy Harris.

Jeffries said Wednesday that the new map is “a competitive map” that would allow “three or four districts at any given point in time to be won by either a Democrat or Republican.”

During his State House visit, Jeffries also met with House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, and her Democratic Caucus to thank them for passing the bill.

“If Congress were doing its job as a coequal branch of government, it would be checking the actions of our out-of-control Executive and there would not be talk of midcycle redistricting,” Peña-Melnyk said in a statement after the visit. “Unfortunately, that’s not currently happening. So the Maryland House stepped up to cause some good trouble.”

Maryland is butt up against its Feb. 24 campaign filing deadline, which some lawmakers, including Ferguson, believe is immovable at this late date.

Moore disagrees, saying Tuesday that “every single deadline that is put together” was done so by politicians.

“So that means politicians can also change it, as well,” he said.

Jeffries told the news media Wednesday that “humbly and respectfully, we can’t impose deadlines on ourselves … when Donald Trump and the extremists are trying to rig the midterm elections.”

Beyond the forthcoming deadline, Ferguson is concerned voting on the new map would open it and the state’s current map to lawsuits that could drastically alter the timeline for the midterm election, confuse voters and cause chaos for the state and local boards of elections.

Still, a source familiar with the meeting said that it was “constructive” and focused “almost entirely on the legal merits of midcycle redistricting in Maryland.”

“Just a difference of the risk analysis when it comes to midcycle redistricting in Maryland, as has always been the case,” they said.

Addressing the press after their discussion, Jeffries said his meeting with Ferguson was a “productive exchange of ideas and perspectives,” and that conversations between the two “will continue as we move forward.”

The congressional minority leader said that he “made clear” his “view that a strong, forceful Democratic response is necessary” to combat Republican efforts to gerrymander congressional maps “with the sole intention of rigging the midterm elections.”

“Donald Trump and Republicans have failed the people of Maryland and failed the people of the United States of America,” said Jeffries. “They failed on the economy, they failed on immigration enforcement, they failed to make life better for people here in Maryland and across the country, and Republicans know that if there’s a free and fair election, they’re going down in flames in the November midterms.”