Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican representing Maryland in Congress, spoke to Andrew Walworth, Friday on the RCP podcast, about the escalating battle over redistricting and gerrymandering, and whether his seat could be on the chopping block if Democrats redraw the lines. “The Democrat majority leader in the House of Delegates here is putting in a bill that says, basically, if another state redistricts mid-cycle-like Texas-Maryland can do it,” Harris explained. “In 2022, they tried to redistrict me out of my seat-to make it a state with seven safe Democrat seats and one toss-up seat (mine), and the court rejected it.” “The current map was a compromise-Western Maryland’s 6th District should really be electing another Republican, but in the compromise, it drew enough of Montgomery County (a D.C. suburb) into it to make it a toss-up district,” he explained. “Do the Republicans really gain that much at the end of the day if California and New York and all these other states get involved? Is it a wash? And second, is it just bad for democracy for us to be going through this?” Walworth asked. “Certainly if California and Illinois could redistrict, then it will likely be a wash,” Harris said. “Missouri, Indiana, Florida-there are other states that could get involved. It could be a one- or two-seat difference, three-seat difference.” “I think we should put the genie back in the bottle on mid-cycle redistricting, but both parties would have to agree,” he said. “You’d have to have agreement on both sides-and right now, both sides are arming up. They’re certainly not standing down.”
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