Since 2002, Maryland has led the nation in one unfortunate respect: partisan gerrymandering. Maryland helped pioneer the modern aggressive gerrymander, dividing communities and diluting voters’ voices.
This August’s special legislative session continued that tradition. Fortunately, two credible legal challenges have already been filed to protect the Maryland Constitution from legislators seeking to undermine it.
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Until 2002, Maryland’s eight-seat Congressional Delegation was evenly split between four Democrats and four Republicans. As redistricting technology improved and state Democrats grew more brazen, Annapolis Democrats gerrymandered the congressional delegation into a 6-2 Republican split from 2003 to 2013.
That still was not enough, and in 2013, Democrats redrew the lines again to create an additional Democratic district, moving Maryland to a 7-1 Democrat map. Today, Maryland Democrats would have voters believe that, despite Maryland electing a Republican governor three times this century, the state cannot support even a single Republican member of Congress.
After helping launch this gerrymandering arms race in 2002, Maryland Democrats found themselves behind in 2026. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) even made a dedicated trip to Annapolis in February 2026 to pressure Maryland Democrats to eliminate the state’s only Republican congressional seat. Maryland Democrats took their marching orders and called a Special Session to redistrict mid-decade and silence the minority party in Maryland. Ignoring the constitutional timeframe, Democrats turned to a ballot initiative. Partisanship was on full display during the special legislative session in early August.
Despite Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) and Maryland Democrats following Washington power brokers’ political pressure, other Marylanders are fighting back and identifying the many ways this mid-decade redistricting effort violates the law.
Five Marylanders have filed suit in Dorchester County to strike Question 3 (HB 2100) from the November ballot. The plaintiffs are GOP state Sens. Mary Beth Carozza, Johnny Mautz, and Chris West, state Del. Chris Adams, and Lindsay Wheatley, of the Dorchester County Republican Central Committee.
Key tenets of the lawsuit include:
- The Maryland Constitution, including its Declaration of Rights, protects the rights of all Marylanders, not just those of the majority.
- In 2022, a former state Supreme Court justice, appointed by a Democratic governor, affirmed that the Declaration of Rights forbids extreme partisan gerrymandering.
- Now Maryland Democrats want those rights gone, so they wrote a ballot question that never mentions them.
- When Democrats realized it was too late to give voters the notice the law requires, they simply declared the law does not apply to them.
- To strip voters of our constitutional protections, Democrats first had to deny voters the process the Maryland Constitution guarantees.
- Most importantly, Maryland courts have enforced these protections before, and they should do so again here.
In addition to one case in Dorchester County, Members of the Maryland Freedom Caucus and the Maryland Senate sued in Anne Arundel County immediately after the General Assembly enacted the gerrymandering amendment.
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The Democrats who control the Attorney General’s office and the State Board of Elections are eager to combine these two cases and defend their shamelessness in Anne Arundel County. The key question is whether any Maryland judge will allow Democrats to ignore specific deadlines required by the state Constitution. Just as important, will any judge permit Democrats to disregard Maryland’s Declaration of Rights and allow extreme partisan gerrymandering to stand? Will any judge allow Marylanders to surrender their constitutional rights?
If the Maryland Constitution and its Declaration of Rights still mean anything, Maryland courts will enforce them now.
Nicolee Ambrose is the Republican National Committeewoman for Maryland, and the 2022 Congressional Nominee for Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District.
