Overview
- Bill Ferguson secured the Democratic nomination for State Senate District 46 on June 24, 2026, and will face Republican Emmanuel Digman in the Nov. 3 general election.
- Ferguson has held the seat since 2011 and has served as Maryland Senate president since 2020, and he ran on a record of funding improvements to south Baltimore schools and sponsoring the state’s digital ad tax.
- Challenger Bobby LaPin mounted a late campaign that boosted his profile through near-daily Instagram videos and a social-media following of more than 100,000 while criticizing Ferguson’s fundraising and attention to rising local costs.
- The primary highlighted an intra-party dispute over redistricting after the Supreme Court limited race-based mapmaking, with Ferguson opposing a push from Gov. Wes Moore and national Democrats to redraw Maryland’s congressional map.
- Ferguson has said he may call lawmakers into a summer special session to consider a constitutional amendment that could let the Legislature redraw congressional districts before 2028, a move that would reshape state control over mapmaking and trigger legal and political scrutiny.