By CLAIRE HUSS, JOE WICKE and CAT MURPHY
Capital News Service
COLLEGE PARK – Gov. Wes Moore ran two successful campaigns this fall: one for his reelection and one for Question 3.
The ballot question passed on Tuesday, giving the party in power the right to redraw the state’s congressional map.
In a week of big wins for their party, Moore and other Maryland Democrats were excited to score the added bonus. Passage of the measure means the party will have more latitude to redraw congressional district boundaries and potentially influence future elections.
To pass the measure, Moore had to overcome ambivalence even among some Democrats. At voting sites across the state this week, voters of all political stripes told Capital News Service they had reservations about voting yes on Question 3.
And state Republicans had put up a tough fight. They believe the measure will give Democrats an unfair advantage to unseat the lone Republican in Maryland, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris. Harris, who represents the 1st District, had urged supporters to “stop the Wes Moore agenda” and vote against Question 3.
Several states that favor Republicans had redrawn congressional district maps as of Sept. 2026. Still, even some elected Democrats in Maryland were tentative. U.S. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md., said he supports Maryland’s right to respond to the Republicans changing their maps, but that this points to a larger need for federal reform.
“I support giving Maryland the flexibility to redraw maps, but I would rather that need not exist here or anywhere else,” Olszewski said in an interview with CNS.
Harris has represented voters on the Eastern Shore for years, and won’t be impacted by the ballot measure until at least 2028. If Democrats redraw the district, it could make a subsequent bid for reelection more difficult.
As expected, some Democratic lawmakers in Maryland are expressing enthusiasm for the newly passed measure.
“It’s a celebration because Question 3 . . . our best chance at stopping Donald Trump . . . has passed in the state of Maryland,” Adrian Boafo, Maryland’s newly elected Democratic District 5 representative, said.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said the question’s passage is a sign that voters are tired of President Donald Trump’s redistricting attempts in red states.
“The people he tried to gerrymander out of power are winning, and we stuck it to him in Maryland tonight with Question 3,” Raskin said at his Election Night party. “And we will move forward for real, genuine redistricting reform to get rid of those extreme GOP partisan gerrymanderers.”
It wasn’t a unanimous opinion, to be sure. As they went to cast their ballots, voters of both parties told reporters they weren’t sure the ballot measure was a good idea.
“Personally, I am very against redistricting,” Gabriella Cox, a 23-year-old Democrat from Cambridge, said. “I don’t think that that should be a Democratic ideal.”
Tom Greening, a 78-year-old voter who described himself as a “Republican person,” agreed with Cox, saying “Two wrongs don’t make a right … (Democrats are) trying to do the same wrong thing that the Republicans are doing. I just wish that neither was doing it.”
But Moore stuck to his argument that a redrawn district would put power in the hands of the people, and he prevailed.
“We are going to make sure that we vote yes on Question 3 because we control our democracy,” Moore said on Tuesday. “Donald Trump is not going to unilaterally just redistrict this entire nation.”
Rhiannon Evans, Elizabeth Faragi and Ashna Balroop contributed to this report.
