House Democrats in Annapolis are sprinting to revive a backup plan that would tweak the Maryland Constitution, open the door to mid-cycle congressional redistricting, and send the whole question to voters. The proposal spells out that U.S. House districts in Maryland do not have to be compact or honor county lines, and leaders have stapled that language onto a separate bill that creates special elections for legislative vacancies. Backers say the move would blunt aggressive map-drawing in Republican-controlled states, while critics see a partisan bet that could easily blow up. A full House vote is slated for Thursday as lawmakers race the clock before the April 13 sine die adjournment.
What the House is proposing
The mechanics are simple enough. The new constitutional language has been grafted onto a bill that would set up special elections to fill vacancies in the General Assembly. The bill's official synopsis on the Maryland General Assembly website says the measure would clarify that certain requirements apply only to districts for the election of members of the Senate of Maryland and the House of Delegates and would permit changes to congressional districts for elections in 2026 and later, until a post-2030 map is adopted, according to the Maryland General Assembly.
Why House leaders say it's needed
House leaders argue the change would clear up lingering legal fog from earlier court rulings and put the final word with voters instead of judges. “It makes sense for us to clarify this confusion once and for all with the clarification to the state constitution,” House Majority Leader Del. David Moon said, and leadership stood by the decision to bundle the constitutional language with the special elections bill, according to The Banner.
Governor backs the effort
Gov. Wes Moore has publicly pressed for mid-cycle redistricting, and his office is pitching the House package as a compromise that addresses legal worries about redrawing congressional lines. Moore also told the Associated Press that the General Assembly “has not just the authority, but the responsibility” to weigh recommendations from his advisory commission, according to AP.
Senate resistance and the odds
The revamped plan still faces a steep climb in the Senate. Senate President Bill Ferguson has said revisiting redistricting “is not a Senate priority” in the closing stretch of the session and warned there are not enough votes to break a filibuster. Sen. Cheryl Kagan, the sponsor of the special elections bill, has also said she will not support the version with redistricting language and warned it would be “dead” if it came back to the Senate in its current form, according to The Banner.
Legal context and what's next
The current push traces back to a 2022 decision in which an Anne Arundel County judge applied Maryland's compactness and political subdivision rules to congressional maps and threw out the state's map as an “extreme partisan gerrymander,” a legal opening this amendment is designed to close, according to The Washington Post. If both chambers ultimately sign off on the constitutional measure, it would head to voters as a statewide referendum. The bill is filed as a constitutional bill that only takes effect if voters approve it, per the Maryland General Assembly's filing, and it would still face legal and political scrutiny even if it clears Annapolis, according to the Maryland General Assembly. For now, this week's House vote will reveal whether the Plan B strategy has real traction or stalls out before it ever reaches the Senate or the ballot box.
