Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes is known as bit of a maverick when it comes to the Democratic leadership in Annapolis. And she defied them once again by voting against the redistricting plan aimed at eliminating the last Republican in Maryland congressional delegation Andy Harris, Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz talked with her about her decision. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM.
RUSH: Efforts to eliminate the last remaining Republican in the Maryland Congressional delegation. Andy Harris got a 99 to 37 vote in the House of Delegates, but Eastern Shore Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes was not one of them. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz caught up with the Democrat to talk about her vote.
DIAZ: It was a party line vote this month to redraw the state's congressional districts, targeting the state's sole Republican in Congress, representative Andy Harris, whose district covers the Eastern Shore. But one Democrat didn't join the party; Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes, who represents Wicomico and Dorchester Counties, in the heart of Harris's congressional district.
SAMPLE-HUGHES: Everyone should be able to have their voice and not be silenced because I've been in the position of that as well being from the Eastern Shore. And I think if the tables were turned and someone would try to, again, try to silence me as being the only Dem, I would hope that others would fight for me to continue to have a voice. So it's about fairness for me.
DIAZ: Sample-Hughes has been in the situation before. She's the only Democrat and the only person of color from the Eastern Shore in Maryland's House of Delegates. But she says her job is to represent the Eastern Shore and its' conservative values that has gotten her in trouble before in Annapolis with her more liberal democratic colleagues who removed her from a leadership role last year in a dispute over a budget.
SAMPLE-HUGHES: But I understand how it feels to be the opposite, to be the minority. And so again, it has nothing to do with Andy Harris. It has everything to do with, I just believe in fairness and I believe that everybody should have a voice that they can resonate with. The entire state of Maryland is not democratic.
DIAZ: So Sample-Hughes insists that her vote was based on principle and certainly not out of any personal or political loyalty to Harris.
SAMPLE-HUGHES: He doesn't speak to me, which I think is certainly unprofessional given the fact that we are both serving the people of the state of Maryland, in particular district one...in particular district 37A. And so I don't know why, but that's really neither here nor there.
DIAZ: For his part, Congressman Harris and his Republican colleagues have called the redistricting plan unconstitutional. They threatened to take it to court if it passes in the Maryland Senate. Final passage, however, remains in doubt. Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, a democrat from Baltimore, has balked. Governor Wes Moore and Democrats in Washington eyeing the mid-decade redistricting push for orchestrated by President Trump in Texas have lobbied the Maryland Senate Democratic leadership to move forward with the redistricting plan, which some see as a marker of Moore's national political stature as a potential 2028 presidential candidate. But questions also remain over the looming candidate filing deadline in Maryland, which falls on February 24th. Meanwhile, Harris told WBAL-TV that even the current seven to one split in Maryland's congressional district is unfair.
HARRIS: I think the president of the Senate realizes that the current map right now, which should have two Republicans only has one, has never been tested in court. And I think he realizes if we take a new proposed map to court, we're taking the current map to court as well and we could end up gaining a Republican seat.
DIAZ: Sample-Hughes echoes the view that everyone in Maryland deserves a voice in Congress, even Republicans.
SAMPLE-HUGHES: The point is, is that we have a district that is diverse and we have a state that is diverse. And I think it's important to make sure that the diversity is there based on representation.
DIAZ: And while she understands what's happened in other states and the battle over control of Congress, her concern is what happens closer to home.
SAMPLE-HUGHES: This is not democratic. This is not the process to silence anybody's voice regardless of what's going on at the national level.
DIAZ: For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz.
