August 3, 2026

Bethesda Magazine

By Ceoli Jacoby

Maryland General Assembly also won’t consider new maps, Senate president says

A proposal to require special elections for vacant seats in the Maryland General Assembly won’t be on the agenda during the legislature’s special session this week, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) told reporters during a Monday press conference in Annapolis.

“This special session is about one thing — the passage of an amendment to Maryland’s constitution to clarify the rules of congressional redistricting,” Ferguson said.

The amendment, which would go before voters as a referendum in the Nov. 3 general election, is meant to address a standard that was created by a 2022 Anne Arundel County Circuit Court decision to strike down a congressional map with eight left-leaning districts.

In her ruling, the Senior Judge Lynne Battaglia cited a provision of the Maryland constitution requiring legislative districts to “consist of adjoining territory, be compact in form and of substantially equal population.” The provision also states that “due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.”

The proposal the legislature will consider this week would clarify that the provision in question applies only to state legislative districts — not congressional districts.

The issue of congressional redistricting became entangled with the issue of special elections for legislative vacancies during the legislature’s regular session earlier this year, when the House committee on Government, Labor and Elections made a last-minute change to a bill sponsored by District 17 Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Rockville).

The change would have allowed the General Assembly to grant the Supreme Court of Maryland original jurisdiction over questions about congressional redistricting in the state.

In an April interview reflecting on the regular session, Kagan told Bethesda Today that House leaders “knew or should have known” the added provision would render her bill dead upon its return to the Senate, which at the time “had no interest in moving on redistricting.”

The House ultimately relented, passing a cross-filed version of the bill sponsored by District 15 Del. Linda Foley (D-Potomac) without the redistricting amendment — but the Senate did not take a final vote on the proposal before the end of the regular session.

Protecting the current map

At Monday’s press conference, Ferguson said the Senate did all it could to get the special elections proposal across the finish line during the regular session earlier this year and in years past.

“This is a bill that has passed the Senate three separate times. We made it Senate Bill 1 to make it a priority — it hadn’t gotten across the finish line,” Ferguson said, adding that the chamber now needs to focus on the main issue of redistricting.

Ferguson strongly opposed mid-cycle congressional redistricting during this year’s regular session, in large part because he feared a court challenge to a new map could result in the loss of one of Maryland’s seven safe Democratic districts. The state has one Republican-leaning district on the Eastern Shore.

Ferguson reiterated his position Monday on the redrawing of district lines, saying a new map also would not be part of the special session on redistricting.

“Since Donald Trump pressured Texas into this redistricting race, what we know is that our goal in Maryland has been to protect our current seven-to-one congressional map,” Ferguson said, referring to efforts across the country to change the makeup of the U.S. House for partisan benefit.

The Battaglia decision, Ferguson said Monday, “put Maryland in a different position than many other states in the union.”

“Unless we address this uncertainty first, any other action would jeopardize our state’s current map,” he said.

Kagan did not immediately respond to Bethesda Today’s request for comment Monday about Ferguson’s decision not to take up special elections for legislative vacancies during this week’s session on redistricting.

The special session began Monday and is scheduled to last through Wednesday, though a spokesperson for Ferguson told reporters Monday that the goal is to wrap up by 5 p.m. Tuesday.