House Committee Presses Ahead With Mid-Cycle Congressional Redistricting Bill

By Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters

January 28, 2026

More than 200 witnesses signed up to testify on a proposed congressional redistricting plan and the House Rules Committee listened to more than five hours of debate Tuesday, but the outcome was never in doubt.

The 26-member committee voted along party lines, with all six Republicans opposed, to send House Bill 488 to the full House, just days after the bill was introduced. There was no debate on the committee, which also took no action on a Republican alternative.

Republicans will likely delay a preliminary vote when it reaches the full House, perhaps as early as Wednesday. But a final vote could still come by the end of the week, sending it to the Senate where its future is far less certain.

“Just for clarity, everybody here knows we’re not here in this position because we chose to be, because we want to be,” said Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), the lead sponsor of HB 488, during testimony Tuesday. “We’re here because our current president, the current administration, basically, in a desperate attempt to rig the next election in the House of Representatives and prevent that next election from delivering any meaningful check on his power, chose to call first the governor of Texas and tell him that he deserved five more votes.”

Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) said Maryland must redraw its congressional districts to check the power of Republican President Donald Trump. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

Wilson was part of a five-member Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission that was empaneled in November, in response to that move by Republican-led states to redraw their congressional district boundaries for partisan advantage before the 2026 midterm elections.

A divided panel recommended last week that Maryland should redistrict, and forwarded a proposed map that would heavily revise the 1st District, the only seat currently held by a Republican in Maryland, Rep. Andy Harris, an eight-term incumbent and leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

A version of that map was introduced in the House Friday and rushed through the Rules Committee by Democratic leadership.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) took the unusual step of testifying for the bill Tuesday.

“It is imperative that Maryland do its part to ensure that Congress is able to function as a meaningful check on executive overreach,” Moore told the committee. “And now is the time for the General Assembly to do what Marylanders expect. Debate the map, improve it, if necessary, and then take the vote.”

The Department of Legislative Services massaged boundaries of the commission’s “conceptual” map to eliminate population variations that could have led to it being thrown out by a court. But it keeps the general outlines of the commission proposal, altering all eight districts but making the biggest changes to the 1st District.

That district currently include the entire Eastern Shore before bending into Cecil and Harford counties and the eastern part of Baltimore County. The new map cuts off part of the upper Shore, instead pushing across the Chesapeake Bay into parts of Anne Arundel and Howard counties, including a part of Columbia. That would increase the number of liberal Democrats in the district, making it harder for a conservative Republican like Harris to keep the seat.

Wilson’s bill also calls for amendments to the state constitution to lift the requirement that congressional districts be compact, contiguous and observe jurisdictional and natural boundaries when possible. It would also say that the redrawn map would remain in effect for the next two congressional elections, until the traditional post-Census redistricting takes place after 2030.

Even as it was passing HB 488, the committee declined to vote on House Bill 482, an alternative offered by House Minority Leader Del. Jason Buckel (R-Allegany).

His bill would amend the Maryland Constitution to create independent redistricting commissions, echoing a proposal pushed unsuccessfully by former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) during his two terms in office. It also proposes granting the Supreme Court of Maryland exclusive authority over congressional and legislative redistricting if a plan is not enacted or if a lawsuit is filed challenging a plan.

Buckel’s bill also proposed prohibiting future mid-decade redistricting, and it would impose the same compact and contiguous requirements on congressional districts that apply to legislative maps. Buckel told the committee he offered his bill in good faith as an alternative to Wilson’s bill.

“We should be looking to do things that truly are fair and that truly reflect our entire population, from Oakland to Ocean City, and that have unquestioned legality, rather than something that simply meets the partisan moment of the day,” he said. “I think we’re better than that.”

Registered Democrats make up about half the registered voters in the state, to about 25% each for Republicans and unaffiliated voters. But a series of redistricting efforts have taken a map that was evenly split between the major parties in 2002, and created one in which Republicans hold just one seat.

House Minority Leader Del. Jason Buckel (R-Allegany). (File photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maryland Matters)

“You deserve the majority of representation,” Buckel said. “You’re the majority of the state, but you neglect those geographic areas, as well as your own citizenry who share different political opinions, if you don’t try to compromise and reach a goal that at least allows them to have a voice.”

While Wilson’s bill is expected to steam through the House, it could hit a roadblock in the Senate, where President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) is an outspoken opponent of mid-decade redistricting. The bill will likely head to the Senate Rules Committee, where it could languish without a hearing or a vote.

Ferguson, who was also a member of the governor’s advisory committee, has said that not only is redistricting for partisan advantage the wrong thing to do, but he worries that it could backfire on Democrats, either by opening the current map to legal challenges or by unwittingly making other districts in the state competitive.

“I don’t think much has changed since our initial analysis,” Ferguson said in a Tuesday morning meeting with reporters.

“I mean, the issue of Maryland was not about the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “It’s about the court applying the Maryland State Constitution to all redistricting and having thrown out our map in the 21-22 year. Nothing’s really changed about that legal analysis.”

A vote by the full Senate is not expected.