David Trone, the Democratic former member of Congress from Maryland’s 6th District, appears to be sniffing around his old stomping grounds for a possible run for his old seat.
The only problem is incumbent Democratic Rep. April McClain Delaney has already announced her reelection bid and started lining up endorsements.
Attempts to reach Trone were unsuccessful. But Inside Elections’ Jacob Rubashkin first reported last week that there was a poll circulating in the district asking people how they would vote in a Democratic primary between Trone and McClain Delaney.
The 23-question poll obtained by Rubashkin asks boilerplate questions about registration and political leanings. It also asks how “appealing” the poll-taker finds McClain Delaney, after describing her as a representative who is “showing up everywhere to fight for hard-working Maryland families,” and Trone, after describing him as a congressman who “stood up against (President Donald) Trump’s abuses of power, voting to impeach him twice.”
But the poll rely leans into it in a series of questions that claim McClain Delaney has voted with Trump more often than any other Democrat in the Maryland delegation and questioning her votes on immigration and criminal justice reform, among others. A follow-up series of questions paint Trone as a relentless defender of Obamacare and abortion rights, and an opponent of Trump during his time in Congress.
McClain Delaney’s campaign responded with a statement noting that her reelection has already been endorsed by every Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation as well as “the Governor, the Lt Governor, the Attorney General … and she looks forward to continuing to fight for the progress needed by Maryland’s Sixth District at this critical moment.”
She has also racked up other endorsements, as well, from unions, environmental and reproductive rights groups, and political organizations like EMILYs List and the New Dems Action Fund, among others.
Should Trone run against McClain Delaney, it would pit two millionaire candidates against one another. In addition to Trone spending heavily on his own race in 2024, McClain Delaney loaned almost $3.9 million to her campaign last year, and has already loaned her campaign $400,000 this year, according to her latest Federal Election Commission filing. That report showed that McClain Delaney had $591,000 in cash on hand as of Sept. 30.