Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Wednesday that if Republicans succeed in redrawing congressional maps in Indiana, Maryland should respond in kind.
“To deprive the majority in Maryland of being able to do what majorities are doing all around the country is an essential deprivation of our ability to participate effectively in the national political process,” Raskin stated.
The congressman noted that Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat, opposed his party’s redistricting effort in October after speaking with the Republican president of the Indiana Senate, who said he would not allow redistricting there.
But Raskin said that if, in the end, the Republican president of the Indiana Senate allows redistricting to take place there, “that is going to redouble everybody’s determination to change Bill Ferguson’s mind” and let Maryland do it as well.
Raskin reiterated that “every seat counts. I mean, we’re down three seats right now.”
“This is, you know, we’re like in the trenches in World War I, and we’re fighting for every district,” he added.
“Nobody’s got the luxury of saying, ‘Well, we’re above this.’”
Raskin also rejected arguments that pressing for redistricting in Maryland would be undermining democracy. He argued that Republicans have long tilted the scales against Democrats, and they’re simply trying to rebalance the distribution.
Redistricting typically happens once a decade after each census. However, national political parties are engaged in an unusual middecade redistricting battle following President Donald Trump’s urging of Republican-led states to reshape House voting districts.
Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win control of the chamber. Trump is attempting to avert a historical tendency for the incumbent party to lose seats in midterm elections.
Texas was the first to respond to Trump’s call by passing a congressional map that could help Republicans win five additional seats, with the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way last week for the new districts to be used in the 2026 elections.
Republicans could also gain up to four seats under new maps passed in Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. In Indiana, senators are considering a proposal that might help Republicans win two more seats.
Democrats scored a victory in California when voters approved a congressional map that could help them win five additional seats, and new congressional districts imposed by a Utah judge could aid the party in picking up one of the state’s four seats.
