Maryland voters approve Democratic-backed redistricting amendment

Maryland voters approved a constitutional amendment that paves the way for Democrats to redraw their state’s congressional map, NBC News projects.

The result ensures the mid-decade redistricting battle that involved nearly a dozen states ahead of this year’s midterms will continue into the next election cycle. It’s also a major victory for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has forcefully pushed for his state to join that fight.

The measure that appeared on Maryland’s ballot, Question 3, sought to exempt congressional redistricting efforts from the requirements in the state constitution, which says that districts must be “compact in form, and of substantially equal population,” and that lawmakers must give “due regard” to “natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.”

In 2022, a Democratic effort to carve up Maryland’s lone Republican-held House district was rejected by a state judge as unconstitutional.

Some Maryland Democrats argued that the standards laid out in the state constitution applied to state legislative districts, not congressional ones, and advocated that they draw new maps ahead of the 2026 elections.

The move was backed by Moore, as well as Democratic leaders in the state House and in Congress. But state Senate President…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business