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 Democrats’ effort to neutralize the Republican redistricting campaign being run by President Trump.
That option appeared to be fading after Maryland Senate Democratic President Bill Ferguson issued a letter this week opposing the redistricting effort, which has the support of the state’s other top Democrats.
But Jefferies said he has been talking with Gov. Wes Moore (D) and other Maryland Democrats — both in Congress and in Annapolis — and strongly suggested they are willing to get involved in the state-level fight over which party controls the House after next year’s midterms.
“Governor Moore has made clear that Maryland is ready to respond to the Trump-Republican effort to rig the midterm elections,” Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol.
“And it is my expectation — my conversations with Gov. Moore, my conversations with leadership in the Maryland General Assembly, and, of course, my conversations with the Maryland congressional delegation — that the state of Maryland knows what the stakes are, understands the assignment, and as we are seeing in many other states, starting with California, will respond aggressively and appropriately in a short period of time.”
With Republicans in danger of losing the House in next year’s elections, Trump has launched a campaign to maintain his party’s lower chamber majority by forcing several GOP-led states to redraw their maps in a way that favors Democratic incumbents. Redistricting is typically done once every decade, following the decennial census, but Trump has accelerated the timeline in the final two years of his second term in an effort to prevent Democrats from regaining the majority and gain new powers to scrutinize his administration.
Trump’s effort began in Texas, where Republicans are now on track to pick up five new seats. Other red states, including Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina, are expected to follow suit.
Democrats have responded, with California under Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom pushing for a ballot referendum to let state lawmakers draw new districts to counter projected GOP gains in Texas. California voters will vote on that initiative on Nov. 4.
Virginia Democrats announced this month that they would also redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. And several other blue states — including Illinois, New York and Maryland — are eyeing similar plans.
In Maryland, Ferguson defeated the effort this week with his letter outlining several reasons for his opposition to redistricting.
From a logistical standpoint, he expressed doubt that a new map could be adopted in time to influence next year’s elections. He also raised objections about political motivations, comparing the partisan effort to gain advantage through mid-decade redistricting to historical gerrymandering in the South to disenfranchise black voters.
He wrote, “It is hypocritical to say that strategically shifting voters based on race is abhorrent, but doing so based on party affiliation is not.”
Maryland has one Republican representative in the House, Andy Harris, who is currently chair of the far-right Freedom Caucus. He represents the largely rural district encompassing the East Coast.
