Lack Of Senate Votes Stalls Maryland Redistricting Effort
Maryland Redistricting Effort Stalls Out Due To Lack Of Senate Votes
The Democrats’ effort to counterpunch the GOP in the nationwide redistricting battle has hit another roadblock after the Maryland Senate president refused to bring the state’s redistricting measure to the floor for lack of votes.
“For the umpteenth time, in the Senate we generally do not bring things to the floor that do not have the votes to pass,” Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said at a news conference, according to NBC News. Tuesday marks the deadline for candidates to file for Maryland’s June 23 primaries. “So, the issue is the window for opportunity is closed for ‘26,” Ferguson added.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the Maryland House have proposed moving the filing deadline to create more time for a new Congressional map to be implemented. Ferguson’s refusal to bring redistricting to a vote comes amid pressure from members of his own party on both the state and national levels. Ferguson went to D.C. last week to meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who tried to convince Ferguson to hold a vote on the new map. The Maryland House passed a new map last month, but the effort was expected to face resistance in the state Senate.
Ferguson is not clueless about what the Trump administration has been doing with its redistricting effort and acknowledged the damage being done during the news conference. “What is happening in the mid-cycle redistricting is horrifying, and there is an active effort to disenfranchise Black elected officials. It’s unconscionable. It is unbelievable,” Ferguson added, but “what we have to do in Maryland is protect Marylanders.”
Both Moore and Jeffries have said that the best way to prove redistricting doesn’t have the votes is to, well, put it to a vote. “Bill Ferguson authentically believes that the votes don’t exist in the state Senate to move forward. The only way to find out is to allow an immediate up-or-down vote on the Senate floor,” Jeffries said in a statement after meeting Ferguson last week.
Moore echoed that sentiment during an interview with Politico last week. “If Bill Ferguson says, well, the votes aren’t there in the Senate, my only point is this: OK, well, you know, the best way to prove that’s true? Do a vote,” Moore said.
Beyond not having the votes, Ferguson does have some understandable concerns that Maryland Democrats might redistrict their way into a dummymander. Maryland’s Congressional map is already heavily gerrymandered, with Democrats already controlling 10 of Maryland’s 11 House seats.
Ferguson has argued that if Maryland implemented a new map, Republicans would undoubtedly sue, and if they won, a court could order the state to draw a new map that would actually create more districts favorable to Republicans. “The map that we have today is our best option for fighting against this Trump administration,” Ferguson said.
According to the Washington Post, Maryland state Senators have sent mixed messages about the redistricting effort’s prospects for passage. “We’ve never had a debate on the issue, not even in the back rooms,” Sen. Arthur Ellis (D-Charles) told the Post. “I believe if we have an honest debate on this issue, it will pass on the floor.”
Conversely, Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery), a staunch supporter of Gov. Moore, told the Post that she didn’t believe redistricting had the votes needed to pass, and that bringing it to a vote would waste time during the current 90-day session. “Other important legislation addressing critical issues would die when we ran out of time,” she said.
On the national level, this is the second setback Democrats have faced in their redistricting efforts in only a matter of weeks. Last week, a circuit court judge blocked a voter referendum that was an essential next step for Virginia to implement a new map that could net an additional three to four seats for Democrats in the midterms.
Despite these setbacks, the Democrats still seem poised to take back the House and potentially have a narrow path to the Senate, as President Donald Trump’s popularity continues to plummet.
SEE ALSO:
Maryland Redistricting Map Removes State’s 1 Republican Seat
Maryland’s State House Passes New Congressional Map
Maryland Redistricting Effort Stalls Out Due To Lack Of Senate Votes was originally published on newsone.com
