Democrats will tell you, as they’ve told me, they would never support a president who trashes the rules, acts like a despot and widens American divides for political and personal gain — but does it to advance ideas they support.
And yet, in a way, here we are.
Maryland is preparing to redraw its congressional maps, doing exactly what President Donald Trump has done. It’s a response in kind to mid-decade Republican gerrymandering at Trump’s behest in Texas, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah and Indiana.
Gov. Wes Moore, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and others seem resigned to reconfiguring the state’s eight districts to get rid of Andy Harris in Congress, betting two wrongs add up to a right.
I’m no fan of the Eastern Shore Republican. Harris is a lousy representative who hides from his constituents, puts his whackadoodle ideology above their daily interests and camouflages the contradictions with funhouse mirror distortions.
But he won in a fairly drawn district created after a federal judge panned the Democrats’ 2022 district boundaries as a gerrymander too far.
Standing in the way is Senate President Bill Ferguson, a profile in courage if there ever was one.
The Baltimore Democrat told my colleague Brenda Wintrode that seizing all eight U.S. House seats could backfire if a judge overrules the resulting maps and hands a second or third district to Republicans.
“These are real decisions that have real consequences,” Ferguson said.
Right now, three weeks after that defiant stance, the governor’s special commission on redistricting will probably try anyway. They would draw a map that balances Republican dishonor — gaming next year’s midterm elections — with Democratic disgrace.
“You know, being on the campaign trail for eight months now, I really am seeing that most people I talk to, they think that the concept of mid-census redistricting is bullshit,” said Dan Schwartz, who is seeking the Democratic nomination in Harris’ 1st District.
No one involved, so far, has demonstrated much care for what candidates working to beat Harris have to say about all this.
“Obviously, there’s folks within the Democratic Party and activists who are excited about it,” said Schwartz, a former consumer advocate from Talbot County. “But most people see this as professional politicians picking their voters.”
The Democrat most likely to win support from those party insiders is Maryland Housing Secretary Jake Day, who formed an exploratory committee this year.
When I talked with him Wednesday, he was more focused on Thanksgiving with his family than a run for Congress.
He isn’t waiting for a decision on a new map, but he also isn’t sure he would run if the redrawn district includes two incumbents. That’s happened before.
“I wouldn’t say definitively that would be the end, but I would say the conventional wisdom is wrong,” Day said, “that people like myself are waiting for redistricting to make it easier.”
This is about Trump’s machinations to retain Republican control of the House in 2026. But it is also about Maryland history.
No matter who the governor is, a likable Army veteran-turned-social-entrepreneur or a likable real estate developer, Maryland political power lies within the General Assembly.
If leadership is attuned to national politics, then the maxim laid down by Jones’ late predecessor, House Speaker Mike Busch, stands.
For three decades, Busch and Senate President Mike Miller set the gerrymander table for Maryland. Their legacy includes the “broken-winged pterodactyl” lines of Maryland’s 3rd District, even though it was ultimately rejected by a federal judge after both were gone.
Busch explained the realpolitik this way: Democrats in Maryland will stop gerrymandering when Republican legislators in other states stop.
It’s the exact calculus of today.
Time is of the essence, no matter what the governor’s commission decides.
The GOP’s five-seat gain in Texas is on hold. A federal judge blocked it, but the U.S. Supreme Court put that ruling on ice to give Republican Gov. Greg Abbott time to appeal. Efforts in other GOP states haven’t gone as well as hoped.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom got voters to approve a map designed to produce a five-district shift for Democrats, strong insulation against a successful court challenge. Virginia could do the same.
Democrats actually might end up on top of this dummymander mess.
Moore’s commission will wait on the high court, although it’s not clear how long. It will offer options to the Democrats in Annapolis regardless.
The legislature returns in six weeks, and the candidates’ filing deadline is seven weeks later. A court challenge by Harris might not succeed, but it would freeze everything until a ruling — an advantage for incumbents.
The outcome might depend on whether anyone listens to the district instead of the babble from outside.
As my colleague Lee Sanderlin reported, Ferguson’s opposition earned him the title “Most Hated Democrat in America” and a drive-by splash from Moore’s hilarious touché to a Washington Post editorial — the first gubernatorial “IDGAF.”
Compare that to what Schwartz, Day and the others running or considering a run say. Harris can be beaten on the current map.
It’s an incredibly conservative district, where independent voters break not only for Republicans but MAGA Republicans.
Yet, public opinion of the movement may be shifting. Inflation, tariffs on farm products, financial uncertainty, Harris’ refusal to meet constituents, and daily images of federal agents bringing down anyone suspected of being brown and foreign could convince voters.
If MAGA Marjorie Taylor Greene can quit Congress and return to Georgia in disillusionment, conservative voters are probably wondering if this is what they wanted.
Others have called Harris vulnerable before, only to watch Democratic challengers lose by wide margins. What’s different this time is the potential for the district to change, not Harris.
So now we wait for answers. How much will Democratic leaders gamble on a better shot at one more seat in Congress?
“I’ve done my exploring, and I’m not closing the door yet,” Day said. “I think it’s appropriate to let these things play out.”
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