Democrats in Maryland have long fantasized about capturing unanimous control of the state’s House delegation, a feat they last accomplished in 1958. After decades of chipping away at Republicans’ dwindling strongholds via some creative gerrymandering, the Democratic-dominated state legislature finally found the chutzpah to go for a clean sweep in 2021. Their target was GOP Rep. Andy Harris, whose Eastern Shore-based 1st District had opted for President Donald Trump by 20 points in 2020. In their initial plan, the seat indelicately leapt across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and into liberal parts of Anne Arundel County, which would have turned it into a bellwether that voted for President Joe Biden by less than a point.
But state courts, after decades of willful inaction, finally had enough. In March 2022, an Anne Arundel County circuit judge ruled that the map unconstitutionally “subverts the will of those governed” and ordered that it be redrawn by the legislature. Fearing the possibility of an even-handed, court-created map, Democrats went back to the drawing board. Their second effort less ambitiously aimed to lock in their 7-1
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