As President Trump pushes Republican-led states to redraw maps for next year’s congressional elections to benefit the GOP, Democrats are looking at where they can counter with their own redistricting.

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 the few states with a clear path forward to counter Republican redistricting.

However, the idea is struggling to gain support in either party.

Democrats already control seven of the state’s eight Congressional seats, but several advocates for redistricting believe Maryland could redraw an 8-0 map.

Maryland’s 1st Congressional District along the Eastern Shore has been held by Republican Andy Harris since 2011. And some residents aren’t too keen on the idea of losing their only GOP representative.

“If you take away that one Congressional seat from me, I have no voice,” said Barbara Lafferty, a Republican resident of District 1, speaking during public comment at a Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission meeting.

Gov. Wes Moore announced the formation of the commission as a way to simply garner public opinion on if Maryland should pursue redistricting at this time and argues it is not an attempt to directly counter new Republican-leaning maps.

But Moore is struggling to get other Maryland Democrats on board, including State Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore County).

“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,” Ferguson told WYPR’s Midday.

Ferguson worries drawing a new 8-0 map could not only attract a lawsuit, but that the map Maryland is currently using could in turn face legal challenges.

Democratic lawmakers already tried to draw an 8-0 map in 2021, and that map was rejected by a state court for illegal partisan gerrymandering.

State lawmakers hastily redrew the map to bring back a solid red district, which is Harris’s current district on the Eastern Shore.

The new map put an end to the lawsuit, but it never went before the court to see if it passed constitutional muster.

Harris agrees with Ferguson’s analysis and warns that if Democrats overreach, they could end up losing ground.

“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,” Harris told WYPR.

Even Democrats within Maryland’s 1st Congressional District are expressing hesitation, like Barbara Osborn Kreamer, a former legislator.

Kreamer lives in Harford County, which is entirely within the 1st District, but she worries a redistricting effort that splits the county could disrupt local Democratic mobilization efforts.

“Personally, it's an outrage to be represented by Andy Harris at this time, but we are working very hard in Harford County to increase our base of volunteers, increase our activism,” she said.

However, some top Democrats have voiced their support for exploring redistricting, including Maryland’s Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County).

Democratic State Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Anne Arundel and Howard Counties) even filed a bill request in August that would redraw Maryland’s map to favor Democrats.

But he said the proposal was more of a warning shot to discourage other Republican states from joining the redistricting arms race.

John Willis, a public policy professor with the University of Baltimore and a former Democratic secretary of state for Maryland, also believes just the threat of redistricting could be effective in deterring more Republican maps.

But he reminds lawmakers that if they do decide to draw a new map, the ultimate decision is still up to the voters.

“People have to be very careful because there are often unintended consequences, meaning that you think you're electing certain people, but the public may in fact vote differently than you think they will,” Willis said.

The Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission has at least one more meeting on the calendar for Dec. 5.

Moore could call on lawmakers to consider redistricting before the end of the year or when they meet as scheduled in January.

Either option leaves lawmakers with a tight timeline with a February Congressional candidacy filing deadline fast approaching.