Can Moore, Ferguson keep a working relationship under redistricting pressure?

Ask Gov. Wes Moore or Senate President Bill Ferguson how their relationship is these days, and they’re going to tell you it’s agreeable.

“My relationship with Bill Ferguson is fine, and we are going to continue working together,” the Democratic governor said.

“I think in any family where you believe in the same ideals, there’s things that you’re going to disagree about,” said Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat. There’s no disagreement, he said, that Maryland is being harmed by President Donald Trump’s policies.

Behind the scenes, though, things are becoming tense as the two Democratic leaders continue to disagree whether Maryland should redraw its congressional maps to more heavily favor Democrats. While the two have disagreed on principle — Ferguson says it’s legally and politically risky to gerrymander the state map; Moore says it’s necessary to combat Trump’s policies — their split may be getting personal

It’s a sign of how high the political stakes are. Nationally, Democrats see picking up House seats in blue states like Maryland as crucial when President Donald Trump is pressuring Republican states to protect the GOP’s razor-thin House majority.

Moore, a Rhodes scholar, former Army officer and history-making choice as governor, is used to winning. He’s also building a national profile and is widely considered a potential candidate for the White House in 2028. For Ferguson, a defeat on redistricting would signal that he’s lost the support of his caucus — and could be at risk of losing his job as Senate President.

That friction flared Wednesday, ahead of the customary budget breakfast with top lawmakers at the Governor’s Mansion, when Ferguson confronted Moore about campaign donations that members of the governor’s staff made to Ferguson’s primary opponent, according to multiple people with knowledge of the exchange. Moore did not dispute the interaction when asked about it Friday.

Ferguson handed Moore a printed page: a campaign finance report for Robert “Bobby” LaPin, a social media influencer and small-business owner who is running against Ferguson in Baltimore’s 46th District Senate seat. The first two donations on LaPin’s report were $50 contributions from Moore’s deputy communications director and an employee who helps oversee Moore’s daily briefings.

Both staffers’ jobs were listed on the report, and Ferguson had highlighted the page to emphasize their presence. Neither lives in Ferguson’s district, and those donations are the only ones on record for either person since at least 2019, according to Maryland’s campaign finance database.

The exchange wasn’t hostile, the sources said; Ferguson wanted Moore to be aware of the donations if he wasn’t.

Representatives from both Moore’s and Ferguson’s offices declined to comment on the record about the donations. But the fact that Ferguson took note of them and felt compelled to bring them to Moore’s attention suggests the relationship between them is strained.

On Thursday, Moore made an unexpected visit to the U.S. Capitol where he put a spotlight on Ferguson again, this time in front of a D.C. press corps.

“I believe in democracy. I believe in letting people’s voices be heard. And I know Senate President Ferguson does as well,” Moore said. “I know that President Ferguson does not want to stand there and say, ‘No vote.’”

Moore met with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, and then the two faced reporters and spoke about the need to redraw political boundaries to counter Trump-fueled redistricting efforts in Republican states. Legislatures have traditionally redrawn political lines every decade to conform with the census.

Ferguson, responding Friday morning, did not seem swayed by the Moore-Jeffries show in Washington.

“I appreciate their thoughts and advice,” Ferguson said, flatly.

The disagreement on redistricting between Moore and Ferguson has been brewing since last fall, but has gone from a simmer to a boil. Democrats from outside Maryland — like Jeffries — are weighing in on Ferguson,

Moore has continued to push the issue, though instead of his typical optimism he’s employed rawer language to make his case on redistricting.

The governor appointed a mostly friendly commission to study redistricting; after a few months of meetings, it voted privately last week to recommend redrawing political lines to improve Democrats’ chances of winning the one district represented by a Republican, Andy Harris.

Ferguson cast one of two dissenting votes.

Then a version of that map was introduced as a bill in the House of Delegates on Friday and scheduled for a hearing and preliminary vote on Monday. The new House speaker, Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk, has voiced support for redistricting.

But even if the bill sails through the House, the map — and Moore’s desire to help his party’s pushback on on redistricting — is likely to stall in the Senate.

While Ferguson has not directly said whether he would allow an up-or-down vote, he made clear that he has other priorities, like addressing high grocery and electricity costs for Marylanders.

“What I know is that the Maryland Senate is going to do what we do: focus on the issues that are most important,” he said.

Ferguson’s team is confident that the majority of Democratic senators are with him. Republicans have repeatedly said they don’t think it’s right to redistrict, either.

Moore’s camp, meanwhile, is hopeful for a different outcome.

“This is about Marylanders making sure that our voices are heard and that our democracy is not being determined by anyone else,” Moore said in an interview Friday.

This isn’t the first time Moore and Ferguson have squared off on a hot issue.

In 2023, Ferguson derailed a planned announcement of a new lease between the state and the Baltimore Orioles for the use of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, calling out provisions in the proposed lease that he felt were unfavorable to the state.

Moore was forced to go back to the negotiating table with then-CEO John Angelos to rework the deal to address Ferguson’s concerns.

Ultimately, Moore and Ferguson stood together at the B&O Warehouse at Camden Yards as the revised lease was signed a week later.

Moore and Ferguson have partnered on other initiatives, and even as the redistricting dispute has played out, they’ve been on the same page on other issues.

Last week, for example, they stood side-by-side at a Severna Park food store to tout legislation to ban grocery stores from repeatedly changing prices. And they’re expected to work together on energy bills that have yet to be introduced.

“We don’t disagree on the fundamentals, that what is happening to Maryland by this federal administration is unconscionable,” Ferguson said.

Moore said they “agree deeply” on the harms of the Trump administration and the need to protect Marylanders.

“We just might have a difference of opinion on how exactly to address that and the urgency on it, on what to do about that,” Moore said. “But my relationship with Bill Ferguson is fine.”