‘He rigs the game’: What Maryland’s governor just announced will shake up the 2026 midterms

Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore said his state will redraw its voting districts before the next election cycle. This comes as a direct response to Republican states doing the same thing across the country. Moore set up a group earlier this month to look into changing the state’s congressional map, even though this normally only happens every ten years after the census.

According to The Hill, the governor talked about his plans at the Texas Tribune Festival. He said that if other parts of the country are changing their maps in the middle of the decade, then Maryland should be allowed to do it too. Moore wants to make sure his state has the same chance to create what he considers fair districts.

Moore went after President Trump during his speech, saying the president has been choosing which states get to redraw their maps and which ones don’t. “He knows he can’t win on policies,” Moore said. “So what does he do? He changes the rules. He rigs the game.” The governor pointed out that Trump only reached out to certain states about redistricting while leaving others out of the conversation.

Both sides are playing the same game

Texas kicked everything off earlier this year when state lawmakers passed a new map that could help Republicans win about five more congressional seats in next year’s election. 

Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law in August, and Trump praised it as a major victory for Republicans, who don’t have a big lead in Congress right now. After Texas made this move, other Republican-led states started looking at doing the same thing. Democrats in other states decided they needed to fight back. California’s governor has expressed strong concerns about current political developments in the country. 

Voters there approved new district lines in a recent election, and leaders in other blue states are thinking about similar plans. The problem is that many states run by Democrats have laws that stop them from changing districts in the middle of a decade.

Maryland doesn’t have as many legal problems blocking this kind of change compared to other Democratic states. Moore said he wants to make sure people in Maryland vote with fair maps next November and that their government actually represents what voters want. Maryland has recently taken legal action against the Trump administration over other issues too.

But not everyone in Moore’s own party likes this idea. Bill Ferguson, who leads the state Senate and is also a Democrat, said last month that he won’t support changing the maps right now. He thinks the dangers of doing this are too big. This split among Maryland Democrats might make it harder for Moore to actually make his plan happen before the 2026 elections.