Although the midterm election is less than four months away, the redistricting wars are far from over. This time, however, Democrats have set their sights on the 2028 general election. Democrats in the Old Line State announced last week that they will host a special legislative session next month to push an amendment to Maryland’s state constitution, allowing for hyper-partisan gerrymandering.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) and House of Delegates Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D) made the announcement in a joint statement. “Consensus on this issue has been clear in the House. Maryland needs a durable, transparent constitutional framework for congressional redistricting that reflects the evolving legal landscape,” Peña-Melnyk said. “This special session gives the General Assembly the opportunity to respond thoughtfully to recent court decisions while ensuring that Maryland voters have the final say on any proposed constitutional changes.”

Ferguson had previously opposed an effort to redistrict ahead of November’s midterms. While the Maryland House, backed by Governor Wes Moore (D), passed a bill to eliminate the state’s sole Republican-held congressional district in February, Ferguson allowed the legislation to stall and eventually die in the Senate. He warned at the time that Maryland’s current congressional maps, which netted seven congressional seats for Democrats and only one for Republicans, had never been scrutinized by the Maryland Supreme Court and that further gerrymandering would trigger judicial review of not only the proposed new maps but also the current maps. Given that the majority of sitting Maryland Supreme Court justices were appointed by former Republican Governor Larry Hogan, Ferguson doubted that the current maps would survive judicial review, likely resulting in Democrats actually losing seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, largely neutering Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and effectively outlawing minority-race-based redistricting, evidently prompted Ferguson to change his mind. “After recent court decisions weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and created new uncertainty around congressional redistricting, Maryland needs a clear legal path forward,” Ferguson said last week, referring to the holding in Louisiana v. Callais. “This special session will allow the General Assembly to do its part while ensuring that Maryland voters make the final decision.”

In order to amend the Maryland Constitution, Democrats need a three-fifths majority in both chambers of the General Assembly to approve the proposed amendment before sending it to Maryland voters on the November 2026 ballot. Currently, Democrats hold a majority of 102 seats in the House of Delegates, well above the 85 required for a three-fifths majority, and 34 seats in the Senate, also well above the 28 votes required for a three-fifths majority. The language of the proposed constitutional amendment has not yet been published, but Ferguson and Peña-Melnyk both said that the amendment will “clarify” standards for redistricting. Republicans expect that the proposed amendment will target constitutional requirements that congressional districts be geographically compact.

Moore, who adamantly pushed for mid-cycle redistricting earlier this year, vocally supported the special legislative session. “For months, I have said that inaction is not an option and we cannot sit on the sidelines while voting rights, fair representation, and the foundations of our democracy come under attack across the country,” the governor said, following the announcement of the special legislative session. “I appreciate the General Assembly’s continued conversations and the agreement to come back to finish the work.”

According to Maryland Matters, Moore initially pressed for the special legislative session to not only introduce a constitutional amendment but to redraw congressional maps; the effort was stymied by Ferguson, who opted to focus on the amendment before drawing new maps.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the sole Republican on the state’s congressional delegation, lambasted the ploy as a blatant power grab. “What the Maryland Governor and the new Democrat[ic] Socialist Party are doing, since they know they can’t win on the Eastern Shore with their far-left ideas,” said Harris, who represents Maryland’s first congressional district, in comments to media outlets, “is trying to win by gerrymandering — with state legislators actually creating a gerrymandering double standard — one standard of compact districts for themselves, and another standard allowing extreme gerrymandering for Congress.”

New York, another blue state, also introduced similar plans to aggressively redistrict ahead of the 2028 general election after having been blocked from redrawing congressional district maps in time for the midterms. Like Maryland, Democrats in the Empire State legislature are working on a constitutional amendment to allow for hyper-partisan redistricting following the midterms. Governor Kathy Hochul (D) said that the redistricting initiative is intended to “give New Yorkers the power to fight back against attempts by Donald Trump and his allies to rig our elections.”