A New Congressional Map for Maryland

A New Congressional Map for Maryland

By Neil Parrott

Great news!  The voters of Maryland have won.  The extremely partisan gerrymandered congressional map that was passed in December by the legislature has officially been stopped.

To see Maryland’s new congressional map and to read a specific analysis of how this applies to District 6, please go to neilparrott.org/map.  

I have been glad to fight for fair representation for the people of Maryland for over 10 years with Judicial Watch’s help.  

First, as Chairman of MDPetitions.com, I worked with Maryland citizens all over the state to gather over 65,000 signatures to force the redistricting map on the ballot for the 2012 election.  Judicial Watch then helped me sue the state to try to change the unfair language on the ballot question.  After that, we worked together to sue the state in federal court to try to overturn the 2012 map.  Finally, in 2022 we fought for and gained a victory for more fair elections.
 
Governor O’Malley, in court and during speaking engagements, indicated that the reason for dividing the Western Maryland District in 2012 was simply to remove Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett.  That map was wrong then, and the 2021 map that continued that division was even worse.

The 2021 map that I took to court with Judicial Watch was an 8 Democrat to 0 Republican.  The map was overturned by Judge Lynn Battaglia who indicated that the map was “an outlier and a produce of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”  That map pushed through by the Democrat Leadership in the General Assembly where every Republican legislator voted against it and where Governor Hogan vetoed it.  

Think about it; that map would have significantly hindered any Republican in Maryland from being elected to the US Congress.  Republicans consistently garner over 38% of the votes for congress which would suggest 2.8 Republican Congressman in the Federal Delegation

While still a gerrymander, the 2022 map passed by the General Assembly on March 30, 2022, finally attempted to respect political boundaries and restored all of Frederick County into Congressional District 6, as it should have been all along.
 
After reaching a deal with the Attorney General (AG), Governor Hogan signed the new map into law on April 5th. The deal meant that the AG's office wouldn't try to overturn Judge Battaglia's ruling and that the Governor and I, along with the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit, wouldn't continue in court to work for a different map.

As such, the extremely partisan gerrymandered map that was passed in December 2021 is gone.  This is a huge victory for the people of Maryland.
 
Is the new map completely fair?  No.  But it is much better for the people of Maryland, which was the ultimate goal.
 
Now that the map is settled, I look forward to running for US Congress in a district where the people will actually have a chance to pick their representatives, rather than having the incumbent politicians handpick their voters to protect their seats.  To learn more about my race for Congress, please visit neilparrott.org and see how you can help.