Maryland Democrats’ hopes of redrawing the state’s political maps to boost the party have failed to gain traction. 

After meeting to discuss advancing redistricting efforts on Monday, leading Democrats suggested the effort, which seeks to flip the last remaining House seat held by a Republican, has stalled. They fear it could face legal challenges similar to the last time Democrats tried to make the one Republican seat, occupied by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), more competitive for their party in 2022.  

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“It was an interesting exchange of views about where we are, but I don’t think there was any resolution to do anything right now,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Punchbowl News, calling the summit “a free and frank exchange.”

His statement comes as Democratic efforts in Maryland to redraw the maps in their favor in past redistricting efforts have faced legal challenges, including in 2022, when a state judge threw out the party’s map targeting Harris’s seat after it passed the legislature due to concerns it was “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” 

At the time, Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia ordered the legislature to draw up a new map. Maryland’s final map, which then-Republican Gov. Larry Hogan signed into law, made the 6th Congressional District in western Maryland more competitive for Republicans.

The debate in Maryland over redistricting efforts sparked this year when Texas Republicans launched and passed new maps seeking to boost the number of GOP House seats the state holds. Democrats nationwide have eyed similar efforts to counteract the opposition’s efforts to further tilt the balance of power in the lower chamber.

The matter is of vital importance to both Republicans and Democrats ahead of the 2026 elections, as the GOP fights to hold onto and expand its narrow majority in the House. 

In Maryland, Democrats have talked about possible changes to the eight districts in a rare mid-decade redistricting effort. Such plans are typically launched at the beginning of each decade, as every 10 years, states redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts to reflect new population counts from the census.

For years, revised political maps have boosted Democrats’ competitive edge in Maryland. 

In 2002, the state’s delegation in the House was split 4-4, before Democrats led a round of redistricting after the 2000 census that boosted their advantage 6-2. Democrats’ edge in the congressional delegation went to 7-1 in the 2012 election following the 2010 Census. 

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Last month, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) said he favored further redistricting efforts because he wants to make the process more “fair.”

“I want to make sure that we have fair lines and fair seats, where we don’t have situations [in which] politicians are choosing voters but that voters actually have a chance to choose their elected officials. We need to be able to have fair maps,” he said.