How the political climate Andy Harris helped create has come for him

For eight terms, Andy Harris has comfortably reigned over his red patch of blue Maryland.

He’s spent 15 years in Congress as a leader in the hardline conservative project that brought Donald Trump to the White House and gave Republicans control of Congress. He leads the House Freedom Caucus, which has used its leverage as a veto power to get what its members want. And he is on the front lines of the MAGA culture war over issues like border security, election integrity, abortion and cutting government spending.

Maryland’s lone congressional Republican has dodged two prior redistricting efforts. But as states take up mid-cycle redistricting at Trump’s request — or in response to it — the shifting political winds are spreading a firestorm Harris helped create. Maryland Democrats are adopting the strident, uncompromising brand of politics Harris pioneered to come for his seat in the 1st Congressional District.

“They know that the only way they can succeed now, instead of defeating me at the ballot box, is to defeat me — attempt to defeat me — on the floor of the Maryland General Assembly,” Harris said in an interview a day after state Democrats approved a ballot question that could pave the way to gerrymandering his district.

Mid-cycle redistricting is a “bad idea” and should be delegated to nonpartisan commissions, Harris said.

“It’s not good for democracy to change your representation and your constituency, potentially every two years,” he said.

But Harris hasn’t said anything about Trump’s push, his critics note, and has passed on chances to change the redistricting process, even though he says he supports reform.

Harris “is now suddenly crying over the fact that the process which he has supported — of extreme partisan gerrymanders — has now come home to roost for him,” said Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin.

A fighter for Trump

Harris, 69, isn’t the kind of Republican who can win over Maryland Democrats the way Ronald Reagan did in his 1984 reelection or Larry Hogan did during his eight years as governor.

His politics represent the farthest reaches of Trump’s MAGA movement.

A son of immigrants who fled government oppression in Eastern Europe after World War II, Harris backs Trump’s mass deportation agenda and requirements for proof of citizenship to vote. He’s been indifferent to the firings of federal workers that swept across his district, frustrating some of the more than 20,000 who live there.

He voted for sweeping cuts to food and healthcare benefits in exchange for tax breaks for the wealthy in Trump’s tax plan, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The changes Harris marked as wins could mean losses or changes in coverage for the 1 in 10 households in his district that receive food benefits. An estimated 27,000 people could lose healthcare, according to the Center for American Progress, because of the law and the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.

In December 2020, Harris met with other Republicans in Trump’s Oval Office to discuss how they could reject Joe Biden’s election victory. Harris later played down the Jan. 6 riots, voted against certifying the election results and nearly got into a House floor fistfight with a Democrat.

Harris’ role as leader of the House Freedom Caucus makes him one of the most powerful Republicans in the country, and he throws bombs at Democrats and Republicans alike.

“By personality, Andy enjoys being a bit of a provocateur,” said Dirk Haire, former Maryland GOP chair.

The crew in 2023 held Kevin McCarthy’s speakership hostage in exchange for key committee spots. Harris made a tear-filled appeal to McCarthy for leadership of one of the largest budget subcommittees, saying he would have to resign if he couldn’t “do anything” for his district, a former McCarthy aide wrote in a tell-all book.

Harris’ consolation prize was leading the panel on agriculture and rural development spending, a position he still holds.

One of the tribe

Harris oversees agriculture spending in that role, and his ability to translate his D.C. power into money for his district has engendered loyalty from his base. Eastern Shore Republicans said Harris understands their agrarian way of life and backs farmers and fishermen with money for things like crop insurance and testing livestock for disease.

He represents the reddest parts of Maryland, meaning he has little electoral incentive to temper his MAGA politics.

The 1st District covers all nine counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, wrapping around the Chesapeake Bay into Baltimore and Harford counties. It boasts the largest share of the state’s farmland, the hub of its commercial seafood industry, and Aberdeen Proving Ground.

He requested more earmarks this year than any other Republican House member, according to Punchbowl News.

Those earmarks can make a big difference in communities like Talbot County’s Cordova, where they’re selling $10 crab cakes to raise money for the volunteer fire department.

Trappe resident Michael Lyons, who has driven a school bus for 29 years, couldn’t say much about Harris’ policy positions. But as he took a break at Cordova’s annual country fair, he said he knew the representative delivered $4.5 million to replace Trappe’s aging fire station.

“That’s a major win because as a small community, we would never raise that kind of money on our own,” he said.

Harris declined repeated requests to shadow him on the Shore during the August recess. He shares few details about his public schedule, posting to social media after he’s left events. He prefers telephone town halls to live versions — and even those he advertises just a day or two in advance.

Local residents said they run into him shopping at small businesses and attending Farm Bureau and watermen’s association meetings, country fairs and ribbon cuttings.

Harris is one of their tribe, Republicans said, a man with power in D.C. who understands their culture. “Western Shore” Democrats shouldn’t pick their next representative.

“They don’t even know how we live,” said Russ Dwyer, a Republican and retired plumber.

Observers say Harris can be calculating in picking his issues.

Harris sought to raise the number of guest visas for temporary foreign workers, a critical labor source for the Shore’s crab-picking houses, Politico reported. That’s despite the Trump administration broadly restricting immigration. Maryland’s Democratic members agreed, but can’t match Harris’ access to Trump.

Days after Trump’s second inauguration, Harris pledged bipartisanship at a “Team Maryland” news conference. A grinning Harris pitched himself as an important emissary with Republicans taking control of Congress and the White House.

There’s been little evidence of his cooperation with the Democrats in the state delegation.

While he initially joined in the push for federal funding to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, he’s since soured on it as costs have risen.

Brusque, but sharp

Harris is fostering a state Freedom Caucus in the General Assembly in Annapolis, where he got his start in politics — notching a reputation as a far-right agitator even then.

As a state senator who represented parts of Baltimore and Harford counties, Harris rankled lawmakers on both sides.

Former Democratic senators and legislative staffers described Harris as smart, combative and doctrinaire on God, guns and abortion. He wasn’t someone you’d want to have a beer with.

During one high-profile incident, Harris in 2009 threatened to keep hundreds of millions in state funds from any public university that showed pornographic films. The budget amendment targeted the University of Maryland’s plans to screen one of the most expensive ever made: “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge.”

Harris’ action sparked outcry from First Amendment advocates, but the school canceled the event.

His state GOP colleagues said the reserved, sometimes brusque Harris was sharp on policy, a trusted adviser and wise political strategist, and easy to talk to.

Even on his busiest days in D.C., state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling said, Harris answers his calls.

The Baltimore County Republican recalled seeking Harris’ advice before his first political debate in 2014. Harris told him to be honest and, if he didn’t know an answer, to say he was an “unpolished” politician and would get back to them.

Outnumbered and impotent to push their own agenda in Annapolis, Republicans of every shade revere Harris’ power and his direct line to Trump.

“If we lose Andy Harris, we have nobody in this state that can work with the Trump administration on good terms,” said state Sen. J.B. Jennings, a Baltimore County Republican.

Harris told Jennings years ago that as a politician, he worked for the people. Jennings described Harris as direct: “He’s not going to sugarcoat it.”

‘Extreme partisan gerrymander’

Democrats have eyed Harris in redistricting twice before, and he’s survived.

The first window was after Harris’ initial win in 2010, but Democrats found an easier target by reshaping the Western Maryland district held by GOP Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. The map survived a Supreme Court challenge and became a case study in gerrymandering.

The shift created a GOP stronghold that Harris carried by double-digit margins in the last seven elections. His challenger in November, Dan Schwartz, a former consumer watchdog, faces a steep climb.

Democrats tried in 2021 to take out Harris, but a judge blocked their proposal, calling it an “extreme partisan gerrymander,” citing language in the Maryland Constitution historically referencing legislative districts.

That decision prompted the November ballot measure. If voters approve, it could give Democratic lawmakers free rein to carve up Harris’ voters.

The Supreme Court of Maryland on Thursday rejected two Republican challenges, allowing the question to appear on the ballot.

Harris told WBAL that the judges “got it wrong.”

“I think the majority of Marylanders disagree with hyper-partisan gerrymandering, and I think they’re going to reject the amendment.”