BALTIMORE — Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson made waves this week with his opposition to drawing a new congressional map to give Democrats an extra House seat, but that hasn’t stopped other party leaders from wanting to move the redistricting process forward.

The issue is shaping up to be a test of Ferguson’s power, as his stance on redistricting puts him at odds with Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. Moore told reporters Wednesday that calling a special legislative session to draw new maps is “not off the table, regardless of what anyone else says.”

“The General Assembly is a large body. So while I have read the Senate president’s letter, I also know that one person cannot stop a process,” Moore said. “My commitment stays firm, that we are going to make sure that we have fair maps inside the state of Maryland, and we are not going to bend the knee to [President] Donald Trump.”

According to Maryland General Assembly rules, the state Senate and House of Delegates meet “in special session when called by the Governor or when a majority of each house petitions the Governor.” While Democrats hold majorities in both chambers, Moore’s calling for a special session would be a boost to House Speaker Adrienne Jones and other Democrats in the lower chamber who have criticized Ferguson’s cautious approach to redistricting.

Jason Johnson, a political contributor to MSNBC and professor at Morgan State University, told The Baltimore Sun Thursday that Ferguson and Moore have “very different incentives” when it comes to a redistricting fight. As Johnson noted, Ferguson wrote in a letter to fellow Democrats that he was concerned the Maryland Supreme Court could overturn a potential map with eight Democratic seats and force the legislature to include two or three Republican seats with another redraw.

“That’s a very micro, Maryland-based concern,” Johnson said of Ferguson’s reasoning. “Whereas you’ve got Governor Wes Moore who’s saying, ‘We’ve had 15,000 job losses in 2025 alone… and if one more seat out of Maryland could prevent something like this from happening every six months for the next four years, I’m going to do it.’”

Of Ferguson, Johnson added that “nobody makes these announcements if they haven’t had conversations” with party leadership and other influential lawmakers to ensure they have the votes to not “look stupid.”

Democrats’ top vote-counter in the state House, Majority Whip Jazz Lewis, did not respond to The Baltimore Sun’s request for an interview on redistricting and how many members would support a special session in the lower chamber. Democrats would need 24 of 34 senators among their ranks and 71 of 102 delegates to petition Moore to call a special session if the governor does not act first.

Republican vote-counters made it clear Thursday that any push for a special session will have to come without their support.

Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready, who represents Carroll and Frederick counties, told The Sun that “none of our members are supportive” of drawing new maps because Maryland’s only Republican congressman, Rep. Andy Harris, could lose his seat. Ready criticized Moore for flirting with a special session and argued that drawing out Harris would go against the governor’s promise to “leave no one behind.”

“I don’t know how gerrymandering the state to squeeze out any Republican representative in a state [that] at worst, goes 35% for Republicans… would be considered fair,” Ready said. “I think that’s the definition of leaving people behind.”

House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy, a Frederick County Republican, said he does not always agree with Maryland Senate Democrats, he believes they are “somewhat more reasonable occasionally on certain issues” than House Democrats. Pippy explained he agrees with Ferguson’s stand against redistricting, but for different reasons than the Senate president.

“The Senate president is warning his party that this could backfire on [them]… whereas our position is that it’s wrong. It’s wrong to eliminate the only Republican federal representative we have,” Pippy told The Sun.

Johnson, the MSNBC contributor, said Democrats’ current redistricting push comes as a response to the Trump administration pressuring red states like Texas and Indiana to create more GOP-leaning districts ahead of the 2026 midterms. Such pressure is “unprecedented” in American politics, Johnson told The Sun.

“Republicans aren’t just doing something that is uncommon; they are doing something that is a complete reversal of all stable legislative trends over the last 20 to 25 years,” he said.

Recent redistricting efforts in Maryland have favored Democrats over Republicans. The two parties shared a 4-4 split of the state’s eight seats until 2002, when lawmakers passed a map giving Democrats a 6-2 advantage. In 2012, conservative Western Maryland was drawn in with liberal Montgomery County, which pushed the margin to 7-1 in favor of Democrats.

A 2022 proposal to give Democrats all eight seats was struck down by a state judge who called the plan “extreme partisan gerrymandering.” The maps were then redrawn to create the current 7-1 map, which Ferguson noted has never been reviewed by courts.

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