Maryland lawmakers approve redistricting referendum

Campaign Maryland lawmakers approve redistricting referendum Comments: by Julia Mueller - 08/04/26 9:27 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Julia Mueller - 08/04/26 9:27 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Maryland voters are set to weigh in this fall on a state constitutional amendment that would clarify rules around congressional redistricting, putting the plan before Old Line State voters this fall.

The state House voted 96-38 and the Senate voted 32-13 to approve the bill, which now moves to the governor for signature before it can head to voters in this fall’s election. The bill needed to pass by Wednesday to meet a deadline to make the November ballot.

“For over a year, I’ve warned that Donald Trump and Republicans across the country are working to rig the system and weaken voting rights. Today, the Maryland General Assembly took action to pass a constitutional amendment that, if ratified by voters in November, will ensure that Marylanders – and no one else – have the final say over their representation,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) thanked Moore and Maryland Democrats “for standing up to the MAGA power grab.”

“Together, we will ensure it’s the American people who decide our country’s future direction in November. Not Donald Trump,” he wrote in a reply to Moore’s post on the proposed amendment.

The bill could give Democrats more latitude to draw congressional lines in their favor. It clarifies that certain parameters on redistricting, related to a 2022 court decision that struck down a 2021 map, apply only to state Assembly districts, not congressional maps. It authorizes the General Assembly to give the Maryland Supreme Court “original jurisdiction” to review congressional redistricting plans.

“This legislation does not draw congressional districts. It does not change a single line on a map. And it does not affect the upcoming 2026 election,” said Maryland House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk in a statement to multiple local outlets. “It simply clarifies Maryland law and gives voters the opportunity to decide whether our Constitution should provide the same legal framework available to other states as they confront the realities of congressional redistricting.”

Democrats already hold seven of the state’s eight House districts, but lawmakers have been debating moves that could give them total control of the delegation as the national fight over congressional lines rages on.

Republicans in the state Assembly broadly oppose the plan, but struggled to stall the effort against Democrats’ majorities in either chamber.

Democrats in Maryland earlier this year tried and failed to advance a separate redistricting proposal that would have redrawn congressional lines in their favor, after Moore spearheaded a redistricting commission late last year to explore redrawing the state’s congressional map mid-decade. The bill cleared the state House but stagnated in the Senate, despite pressure from national Democrats.

The proposals are part of a broader fight after Republican-friendly redistricting in Texas and a Democrat-led response in California ramped up a nationwide arms race over district lines.

Democrats need to net just three seats this fall to flip Republicans’ slim hold on the upper chamber, raising the stakes for redistricting moves that traditionally happen just once a decade after the Census.

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