wypr.org · September 8, 2026
What’s next for Maryland’s bitter congressional redistricting fight? | WYPR
# What’s next for Maryland’s bitter congressional redistricting fight?
WYPR - 88.1 FM Baltimore | By Sarah Petrowich
Published September 8, 2026 at 4:50 PM EDT
Sarah Petrowich / WYPR
Dome of the Maryland State House
Advocacy campaigns for and against what will appear as Question 3 on Marylander’s November ballot are well underway, but voters can expect persuasive tactics to ramp up between now and November.
Question 3 is the product of nearly a year’s worth of effort from some Maryland Democrats to try to alter Maryland’s Constitution to virtually legalize political gerrymandering when drawing congressional districts.
The state constitution currently requires “legislative districts” to consist of “adjoining territory, be compact in form” and that “due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.”
This November, if voters vote yes on Question 3, that map-drawing criteria will only apply when lawmakers are drawing district lines for state legislative districts, not congressional districts.
The change would provide a legal pathway for the Democratic-controlled General Assembly to draw a congressional map that loops more Democratic voters into Republican Congressman Andy Harris’s district.
Harris is the only Republican representative in the U.S. House on behalf of Maryland and chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
Legislators have floated trying to put a map that entirely favors Democrats – which passed in the House of Delegates this year, but was never brought forward in the Senate – in place for the 2028 election.
Legislative maps are generally drawn every ten years when new census data is released and districts need to be altered in order to reflect population changes.
While early redistricting isn’t an entirely new concept, the practice has been sprawling nationwide after President Donald Trump called on Texas to redraw its congressional map last summer to favor the GOP.
California was quick to answer with its own new map that will likely counter the Republican gains in Texas, but other red and blue states have launched into an all-out redistricting arms race.
But Maryland is poised to sit on the map-drawing sidelines for the 2026 election.
Instead, top Democrats’ focus is on convincing voters to approve Question 3.
“My sense from this debate is that it is one step at a time. When you try to skip steps and think ahead, that's when things fall apart,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) told WYPR. “I think we saw that in places like Virginia that thought that they had baked in a response, and it didn't quite pan out as they had hoped. And so I would say we got to focus on what's in front of us.”
Virginia’s high court struck down a voter-approved constitutional amendment in May that would have allowed the state legislature to redraw its congressional map to favor Democrats, ruling proper ballot procedures had been violated.
Ferguson was initially opposed to approving an 8-0 Democratic controlled map in Maryland during the General Assembly’s regular legislative session earlier this year.
But he said the tides shifted following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to gut key provisions within the Federal Voting Rights Act, setting the stage for southern Republican states to oust Black Democratic representatives.
Now, Ferguson is one of the strongest supporters of getting Question 3 on the November ballot.
“I believe I've been one of the first statewide officials to have secured some significant resources for the ballot initiative, and it's because I believe that this belongs in front of voters, and that it is ultimately their choice for how we move forward,” Ferguson said.
Question 3 already experienced some significant legal turbulence over the past month after two lower courts ruled the legislature violated procedural deadlines when passing the constitutional amendment, and found the ballot question as written to be misleading.
The Maryland Supreme Court reversed those two decisions on Thursday, requiring a simple language tweak before the question could be printed.
During oral arguments, several justices raised concerns over voters not understanding that the constitutional amendment would remove any governing power the Maryland Constitution has over the state’s congressional maps.
The high court ordered the line: ““FOR the purpose of… providing that nothing in the Maryland Constitution provides applicable criteria for the boundaries of a congressional districting plan” be subbed into the question as it appears on the ballot.
The final line previously read: “The proposed Constitutional Amendment… requires the criteria for boundaries of congressional districts to be determined by applicable federal law.”
“I think that it was a fine change. I don't think that it was substantially different, and so I have no qualms with the decision to alter it. I think it's– I believe both of them are clear,” Ferguson said.
Ballot printing for early voting is already underway, and ballots will start to be sent out on Sept. 19.
While leading Democratic officials will be fundraising and passing out educational information in the hopes of persuading voters to vote yes on Question 3, Republicans will be doing the same in pursuit of the opposite outcome.
State Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel County) announced the launch of a statewide fight against the passage of the constitutional amendment prior to it even passing in the General Assembly.
“This is a direct assault on the checks and balances meant to protect you from government overreach. Gerrymandering is the ultimate form of voter suppression,” Simonaire said in the campaign’s first attack ad. “Protect your voting rights and vote no to the ballot question. And let them know that the people still rule this great state, not the politicians.”
Senate Republican Leader Stephen Hershey (R-Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties) has signaled national Republicans are already gearing up to pour funding into a campaign against the ballot question.
Even some voters are already expressing their distaste in the proposed ballot question, arguing it’s ultimately a means to unseat Harris.
“You're taking Andy Harris away from us. There's not going to be a chance to vote in November. No, you're taking away– you are anti-democracy, and you should be embarrassed,” a Maryland State Fair attendee said to Moore in a back-and-forth while WYPR was speaking with the governor.
While Moore and Ferguson have been bitterly divided over Maryland’s role in the redistricting arms race, the two appear to be on the same page when it comes to focusing on letting the voters decide.
“The power is now with the people,” Moore told WYPR on Friday. “That's the only thing I've ever asked, is saying, like, don't let Donald Trump and don't let party bosses determine what our democracy looks like and what our freedoms look like. Give it to the people. Let the people decide. And so we're very excited to now go out and make our case.”
Within days of the General Assembly passing the constitutional amendment, Democrats formed a ballot committee dubbed “Fight Back MD,” which Moore and Ferguson both support.
“We need to raise money to make sure that we have education materials out there across the whole state in every voting precinct, so that voters have the knowledge that they need to make the best decision for the future of the state,” Ferguson said.
The full ballot question language and other questions voters will be voting on come Nov. 3 can be found on the State Board of Elections website.
WYPR’s John Lee contributed to this story.