{"id":15234,"date":"2025-11-04T15:01:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wes-moore-launches-maryland-redistricting-commission-after-top-state-dem-stymies-effort\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:01:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:01:37","slug":"wes-moore-launches-maryland-redistricting-commission-after-top-state-dem-stymies-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wes-moore-launches-maryland-redistricting-commission-after-top-state-dem-stymies-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Moore launches Maryland redistricting commission after top state Dem stymies effort"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is pushing to redraw the state\u2019s congressional maps, announcing on Tuesday the creation of a commission that will propose new lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s announcement that he\u2019s creating the Governor\u2019s Redistricting Advisory Commission<\/a> comes a week after Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson sent a letter to dozens of state lawmakers<\/a> declaring \u201cthe Senate is choosing not to move forward with mid-cycle redistricting.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sets up a clash between the two Democratic leaders in a blue-leaning state where any effort to redraw the map will net a single seat, given that Maryland Democrats already dominate the state\u2019s congressional delegation with seven of its eight U.S House seats. It also comes as Democrats are ramping up their efforts to change maps to match President Donald Trump\u2019s moves to redistrict red-leaning states to net additional seats for Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy commitment has been clear from day one \u2014 we will explore every avenue possible to make sure Maryland has fair and representative maps,\u201d Moore said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cThis commission will ensure the people are heard..\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission will be chaired by Maryland Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a close ally of Moore\u2019s who he helped get elected to the Senate last year. Moore\u2019s other appointees include Brian Frosh, the state\u2019s former Democratic attorney general who served under former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, and Ray Morriss, the nonpartisan mayor of the city of Cumberland.<\/p>\n

The other appointees of the commission include Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones, who has been public about her intent<\/a> to launch a redistricting push, and Ferguson \u201cor designee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reached for comment on whether he\u2019d join the commission, a spokesperson for Ferguson responded simply: \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore, considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, is itching for Maryland to enter the national mid-decade redistricting fight that touched off earlier this year when Trump urged the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature to redraw districts to pick up five seats that favor Republicans ahead of next year’s midterms.<\/p>\n

Moore himself has characterized what Trump is doing<\/a> as \u201cnothing more than political redlining,\u201d a reference to the discriminatory housing practice that kept Black Americans out of predominantly white neighborhoods by denying them mortgages.<\/p>\n

Ferguson, who is white, in his letter last week also made a racial argument against moving to redraw state lines. He said Maryland, which has a governor, House speaker and attorney general who are all Black, has long fought against racial gerrymandering that was aimed at \u201cdiluting\u201d the Black vote. It would be \u201chypocritical to say that it is abhorrent to tactically shift voters based on race, but not to do so based on party affiliation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

In California on Tuesday, voters take up a ballot measure, Proposition 50, the mid-decade gerrymander that is being led by Gov. Gavin Newsom. If it passes as expected, it would offset the GOP pickups that the Texas redistricting effort created.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is pushing to redraw the state\u2019s congressional maps, announcing on Tuesday the creation of a commission that will propose new lines ahead of the 2026 midterms. Moore\u2019s announcement that he\u2019s creating the Governor\u2019s Redistricting Advisory Commission comes a week after Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson sent a letter to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}