Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) sent a late-night letter on Monday to Democrats in Maryland’s General Assembly, urging the state legislators to pass a new redistricting map.
The map has already passed the state’s House, but the bill now faces opposition from Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D), who has refused to bring the measure to the floor.
“I’m writing to explain from my perspective why Members of the Maryland Senate should vote for the new Congressional district map approved by the House of Delegates,” Raskin wrote in the letter, which was obtained and shared by The Baltimore Banner.
During a press conference last Friday, Ferguson addressed the split within his party in the state legislature over the new map. The Democratic leader said that a mid-cycle redistricting effort could result in a legal challenge and push back election timelines and risk losing Democrats seats in the state legislature.
While he agreed with other Democrats’ discontent with the Trump administration’s policies, Ferguson said his focus remains on ensuring that his party does “not go backwards.”
“The timing, the constitutional structure here in Maryland, is the basis by which we came to this conclusion, and so that has not changed,” Ferguson said. “We cannot risk losing representation in this moment, with this federal administration, and so that risk is just simply too great and would be absolutely a travesty for the courts to determine that Maryland’s map had to change.”
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has also weighed in on the matter, calling Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Tuesday to offer assistance and express her support for the passage of the new map, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
Pelosi was instrumental in the effort to pass Proposition 50 in November, a redistricting measure that favored Democrats in the state. The new map passed with over 64 percent of the vote.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) heralded the win as a victory against the Trump administration’s efforts to push redistricting reforms in Republican states like Texas and urged other Democratic-led states to do the same.
In his Monday letter, Raskin echoed Newsom’s calls to use the redistricting effort to stand up against the Trump administration, saying the country is “facing an existential threat” that “requires a nationwide response.”
“Once we have defeated this autocratic power grab, I will gladly again champion nationwide electoral reform to abolish partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression,” the congressman wrote. “I will work again to pull over some Republicans because we need some of them to join us to make it happen.
“But we will never be in a position to make these reforms real if we surrender now to the forces that want to turn America into an authoritarian country like Orban’s Hungary or Putin’s Russia,” he continued. “That means we have to fight back right now.”
