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As President Trump pushes Republican-led states to redraw their district maps for next year's congressional elections, Democrats are looking at where they might counter with their own redistricting. In Maryland, the Democratic governor has created a commission to consider redistricting and making recommendations, but only one of the state's eight House members is a Republican. WYPR's Sarah Petrowich reports there are people in both parties who don't want to go after that seat.
SARAH PETROWICH, BYLINE: With a Democratic governor and party control in both chambers of the state Legislature, Maryland is one of the bluest states in the country, and it's one of just a handful of blue states that could redistrict before the midterms. Governor Wes Moore created a commission on the idea, and it's drawn big online crowds. There were the expected objections from Republicans. One was Barbara Lafferty (ph), from the district with the state's only Republican U.S. House member.
BARBARA LAFFERTY: If you take away that one congressional seat, for me, I have no voice.
PETROWICH: Democrats lined up to support redistricting, arguing it's a way to push back against the Trump administration. But even some Democrats have doubts. Barbara Osborn Kreamer, a former legislator, said she hopes to just vote out the Republican, Representative Andy Harris, without a new map.
BARBARA OSBORN KREAMER: Personally, it's an outrage to be represented by Andy Harris at this time, but we are working very hard in Hartford County to increase our base of volunteers, increase our activism.
PETROWICH: In all, Maryland's House delegation has seven Democrats and one Republican. Lawmakers actually drew an 8-0 map a few years ago, but it was blocked by the courts. Then they quickly drew the current map without much public input. Governor Moore says he wants to hear from the public now, though he hasn't explicitly called for redistricting. But another leading Democrat, Senate president Bill Ferguson, said in an interview with WYPR in Baltimore, that a new map could die in the court again, and the current one is good enough.
BILL FERGUSON: We are sending, from my perspective, seven Democrats to Washington to fight on behalf of Marylanders, and I think that's an important feature of where we are.
PETROWICH: In an interview, the Republican Congressman Andy Harris said he opposes mid-decade redistricting and warns that if Democrats overreach, they could end up losing ground.
ANDY HARRIS: Not only could a new map be thrown out now, but the current map could be adjudicated by the court as one that is unduly partisan and force it to be redrawn to have two or three Republicans in Congress from Maryland.
PETROWICH: Across the country, it's unclear which party will win the redistricting battle, especially as court challenges are pending. Texas Republicans were quick to answer Trump's call for redistricting, and California Democrats were quick to counter it. But some other states have been more hesitant, like Maryland. John Willis teaches public policy at the University of Baltimore and is a former Democratic secretary of state in Maryland. He says it makes sense for Democrats here to keep their options open as a deterrent to Republicans elsewhere.
JOHN WILLIS: Why not be part of the conversation and tell the other states on the other side that if you're going to go to extreme lengths, you know, maybe we will, too. That's - it's an OK thing to say.
PETROWICH: But he noted that trying to redraw one district could make the others more competitive.
WILLIS: There are often unintended consequences. The public may, in fact, you know, vote differently than you think they will.
PETROWICH: The governor's Redistricting Advisory Commission has at least one more meeting on the calendar. Moore could call on lawmakers to consider redistricting before the end of the year or when they meet as scheduled in January.
For NPR News, in Baltimore, I'm Sarah Petrowich.
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