Maryland Democrats should reject gerrymandering and set a national precedent
The mid-decade redistricting initiated by President Trump is mostly finished for the moment, except in Maryland. In November, voters across the state will be asked to support or oppose Question Three, a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for additional gerrymandering. The phrasing of the question makes it difficult to understand its intended purpose, but it seeks to remove any requirement that congressional districts be compact, contiguous and respectful of geographic features.
This means that Cumberland in Western Maryland and Salisbury on the Eastern Shore — separated by the Chesapeake Bay and nearly the entire width of the state — could one day end up represented by the same member of Congress. Maryland could end up with polka-dot districts, where neighborhoods in distant cities and rural counties are joined together with narrow tendrils to create a favorable mix of voters.
Democratic voters in Maryland are being told by Gov. Wes Moore (D) and his allies in the legislature that a vote in favor of Question Three is a way to fight back against President Trump. Their argument is undermined, however, by the reality that Democrats have been trying to gerrymander Maryland’s last Republican held district out of existence for many years, including as recently as 2022 when Trump was out of office and Joe Biden was president.
Maryland Democrats are being offered a false choice. It is simply not necessary to gerrymander Maryland to oppose Trump. Despite what Marylanders are being told, adopting tactics we abhor makes our politics worse instead of better. Democrats are on track to retake control of the House in November and are competing well in Senate races that seemed out of reach until recently. The Democratic control of Congress after November’s election does not at all depend on Maryland gerrymandering.
The earliest Democrats could enact new maps would be for the 2028 election. These new maps would make it difficult for Republicans to hold the 1st Congressional District. Maryland would probably send eight Democrats to the House and no Republicans.
This gerrymandered result would net Democrats one extra seat in Congress. Maryland’s all-Democratic delegation would be sworn in on Jan. 3, 2029, just 17 days before President Trump leaves office and two years after Democrats likely take control of the House. Despite Moore’s assurances to the contrary, it is not necessary for Maryland to undertake another round of gerrymandering for Democrats to stand up to the president.
Marylanders could be forgiven for believing the tide is running in favor of gerrymandering, but there are encouraging signs that the worst is over, and a better approach can prevail.
In Indiana, Republican State Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray and 20 of his Republican colleagues defied President Trump and refused to support pro-Republican gerrymandering. Bray and others understood they would pay a heavy political price for their actions, but this didn’t stop them from doing what was right. More recently, the Supreme Court blocked an effort to use Missouri’s new Republican-gerrymandered map in the 2026 election, leaving in place the map from 2022, drawn before this year’s frenzy of redistricting.
As bad as gerrymandering is elsewhere, Question Three in Maryland seeks an even worse outcome. Unlike Texas, which will still send some Democrats to Congress even after redistricting, or California, which returns power to an independent districting commission in 2030, Democrats in Maryland are seeking to entirely eliminate Republicans from the state’s congressional delegation and change the constitution, almost certainly guaranteeing the legality of gerrymandering in Maryland long into the future.
Maryland’s Democratic voters are being told by their leaders that the way to fight fire is with fire. In fact, the way to fight fire is to put out the flame. Large numbers of Maryland voters already understand this, and only 28 percent of them in a bipartisan poll are ready to support Question Three. A second poll by a Democratic firm without Republican input found that 40 percent of Marylanders were in favor of the question, still well below the threshold for passage.
Most Marylanders know that gerrymandering is wrong, and both polls show a majority of voters aren’t ready to emulate the bad behavior of other states and embrace gerrymandering. Marylanders have a chance in November to turn the tide against one of the worst tactics in American politics. This would have national implications. Rejecting Question Three would send a powerful signal that not every American is ready to succumb to cynicism and propagate the worst parts of our political culture.
After a year of mid-decade redistricting, few states can command the moral high ground on the issue. By rejecting Question Three, Maryland would be different. An overwhelmingly Democratic state that pushed back against its Democratic leaders as they tried to gerrymander Maryland’s last Republican congressional seat out of existence would be an extraordinary development. With its honor intact, Maryland can then help push the nation toward a more representative and productive version of politics.
Colin Pascal is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a registered Democrat and a founding member of the nonpartisan group Protect Maryland Votes, an organization opposed to gerrymandering and Question Three.
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