Every 10 years, states redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts to reflect new population counts from the census. Maryland’s final map, which Republican Gov. Larry Hogan signed into law, makes the 6th Congressional District in western Maryland more competitive for Republicans.
Democrats in the state legislature initially passed a map over Hogan’s veto that would have made the 1st District on the Eastern Shore — the only seat in the state currently represented by a Republican — much more competitive. However, a state judge blocked the Democrats’ map as “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering” and ordered the legislature to draw a new one.
How the districts voted in 2020, by presidential vote margin in percentage points
Democratic
Competitive
Republican
Old map 8 districts
Change
Change in Democratic districts: 0
Change in Competitive districts: 0
Change in Republican districts: 0
New map 8 districts
How the new map shifts voting power by demographic
Maryland will continue to have eight seats in the House. Its new map creates two Black-majority seats — the 7th District, home to Baltimore, and the 4th District, which includes portions of Prince George’s County outside the District of Columbia.
The group that represents the majority in each district
About the data
Sources: US Census Bureau, Edison Research, each state’s legislature or other redistricting authority, Voting and Election Science Team via Harvard University’s Dataverse
Methodology note: Vote margins for new congressional districts are determined by calculating precinct-level vote totals for each district. If a new district splits a precinct, block-level voting-age population is used to allocate that precinct’s votes to the new districts. Block-level demographic data from the 2020 census is reaggregated into each new district’s boundaries.