Jeffries vows to pressure fellow Democrat holding up state redistricting fight

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., vowed to apply pressure to Maryland Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson, who has spoken out against the Democrat-led plan to redraw the state’s lone Republican in the House out of his district.

“Let’s talk about Maryland, because this is a fight within your own party. The governor, Wes Moore, is backing this plan to redraw the one Republican essentially out of his district. This has passed the state house, but it’s being held up in the state senate by one man, the state senate president, Bill Ferguson. Bill Ferguson, who’s not bringing this to the floor for a vote,” CNN’s Manu Raju asked during “Inside Politics.” “Could he cost you the majority? This Democratic state senate president in Maryland?”

Ferguson urged his party in a letter in October to avoid pursuing mid-cycle redistricting measures to redraw Maryland’s congressional lines, fearing that the process could backfire. Democratic Gov. Wes Moore brushed off the senate president’s warning in November.

“He’d have to live with that if that’s the outcome at the end of the day. But I don’t think that’s going to be the outcome, because we know we have majority support right now as we speak in the Maryland state senate. And all we’re asking President Ferguson to do is allow democracy to prevail,” Jeffries responded. “What that means is an up or down vote.”

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“One man shouldn’t stand in the way of the people of Maryland through their representatives in the state senate, being able to decide, should we go in this direction or should we not answer Donald Trump’s continued efforts to rig the midterm elections?” the House minority leader continued.

Jeffries argued that Democrats were taking the issue of gerrymandering to the voters, compared to what the Republicans are doing, who he said were “passing maps that they are intentionally gerrymandering, often wiping away Black or Latino districts in the dead of night.”

When asked about Ferguson’s concerns over legal challenges and the law potentially back firing on the party, Jeffries said, “He’s not right.”

The House minority leader then vowed to apply some pressure to Ferguson if he stood in the way.

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“At some point I’m going to have to have a conversation with him if he continues to stand in the way of an up or down vote. But hopefully over the next few days, he’ll change his mind,” he said.

Ferguson did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Jeffries said Democrats were attempting to redistrict across the country to make sure the “national map is free and fair.” Texas Republicans successfully passed a new congressional map in August, which added five new Republican-leaning districts in the state.

“And so whatever advantage Republicans thought they were going to obtain by gerrymandering in red states across the country, we are making sure those advantages are completely and totally wiped out,” he said.

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Raju asked Jeffries about how much money the Democrats were willing to spend to get the ballot initiative in Virginia passed specifically. The Virginia Senate voted 21-16 along party lines on Wednesday to pass a set of new congressional maps that would leave just one Republican district in the state in play.

“Whatever it takes,” he responded. “We will spend tens of millions of dollars to make sure that the Republicans do not successfully manipulate voters in Virginia, and that voters have all of the information necessary to make a decision around whether they want Donald Trump to rig the midterm elections and halt the ability for the American people to decide who’s in the majority, or whether the people of Virginia and the people of America should be the ones to decide.”