Maryland’s candidates are locked in for 2026, and the best window to redraw the state’s congressional districts appears to have closed — at least for this year.

Could 2028 become the plan B for Maryland Democrats who still want to join the nationwide parade of states redistricting in favor of one party or the other?

Gov. Wes Moore’s office has hinted that a “plan B” is in the works, but no one is sharing any details publicly. Moore did not take questions from reporters in Annapolis Tuesday or Wednesday.

Moore spokesman Ammar Moussa said that Maryland “is going to stay ready” in the face of Republican-led gerrymandering in other states.

He would not say what Moore’s next move would be on redistricting, but said the Democratic governor is “evaluating all responsible options and timelines to protect Marylanders and defend fair representation.”

Senate President Bill Ferguson and House of Delegates Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk — who both would have to buy into any redistricting plan — disavow any knowledge of a plan B.

“I don’t know that there is a lot of appetite here about reopening the conversation around redistricting,” Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, told reporters. “Certainly we’re monitoring what’s happening, but we’re moving to focus on the issues that we know Marylanders care about.”

Peña-Melnyk said that she’s not ready to move to a plan B.

“I’m on plan A,” Peña-Melnyk said. “We passed the bill. The House made it a priority. It is in the Senate, and there’s still time for the bill to pass.”

Peña-Melnyk said it’s important for Maryland to meet the moment when it comes to redistricting.

“We didn’t start that fight, but when someone picks a fight with us, we won’t back down,” Peña-Melnyk said.

Maryland has been pressured by national Democrats to jump into the tit for tat gerrymandering between Republican-led and Democrat-led states, all seeking an advantage in this fall’s U.S. House elections. The cascade began when President Donald Trump asked Texas to draw more Republican-friendly districts last year.

Democrats are hoping to retake control of the House to serve as a check on Trump, while Republicans, naturally, want to remain in power and deny Democrats the tools to investigate the administration.

Maryland currently sends seven Democrats and one Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives, and many have their eye on the Eastern Shore-based district of Republican Rep. Andy Harris.

Moore and Peña-Melnyk have supported redrawing the districts; the governor set up a commission that put forward a map and the House speaker shepherded it to passage in her chamber. But Ferguson has been opposed to redrawing districts, saying it’s legally and politically risky.

Just a few senators have said they disagree with Ferguson’s position, and none have publicly expressed an intention to try to free the congressional map from the committee where it is parked.

If leading Democrats want to pursue a new map for the 2028 election, one option would be to address Ferguson’s legal concerns first by rewriting the rules for redistricting in the state constitution, so that map-drawing could be done with fewer limitations. That would take place in the form of a question on ballots this fall.

The last time Democrats drew new congressional boundaries, in 2021, a judge ruled them invalid because they were not compact and didn’t consider existing boundaries, like county lines. That standard, part of the Maryland Constitution, had historically been applied only to the General Assembly’s districts, not congressional districts.

A ballot question could make clear that the standard does not apply to congressional districts.

By striking or tweaking that section of the state constitution in 2026, a new map drawn in 2027 or 2028 would be more likely to survive the inevitable legal challenges.

Advocates for redistricting aren’t ready to give up on 2026 yet, though.

They note that a challenge to the federal Voting Rights Act, which governs when race can be used as a factor in drawing districts, is pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. If a ruling weakens the Voting Rights Act, that could lead to Republicans further gerrymandering other states to their advantage, advocates say.

“With the Supreme Court poised to gut the Voting Rights Act, action is still necessary,” reads a statement from Maryland’s Meet the Moment Coalition. “As states continue mid-cycle redistricting, this issue will not disappear in 2026 or 2028. Maryland must respond and protect voters’ voices and representation.”

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a pro-redistricting group chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., is also still pressing Maryland to act.

“Republicans are showing no sign of stopping their mid-decade efforts to rig the 2026 midterms and beyond,” Marina Jenkins, the committee’s executive director, said in a statement. “Democrats must do everything in their power to ensure that there is a level playing field that allows the American people to choose who controls the House of Representatives.”