Government & Politics

6th Dist. Financial Returns: McClain Delaney, Trone poured combined $36M in personal assets into primary battle

Total cost of TV ads reached more than $23M during six-month campaign, latest reports show

By

Louis Peck

July 16, 2026 11:15 p.m.

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During the six-month period leading up to the June 23 primary election, local viewers turning on their television sets—particularly during daily newscasts—faced a saturation ad campaign by the two leading contenders for the Democratic nomination in Maryland’s 6^th District: U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney and her immediate predecessor, ex-Rep. David Trone.

Three weeks after Primary Day—in which McClain Delaney defeated Trone, 44%-37%, to win renomination in an eight-candidate field—the financial returns in the battle between the two multimillionaire Potomac residents are now in.

Disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show McClain Delaney and Trone spending a combined total of $23.2 million for TV media purchases throughout the campaign, as they relentlessly criticized each other while seeking to rebut the other’s attacks.

Trone—who vowed to spend “whatever it takes” to reclaim the seat he held from 2018 to 2024—outspent McClain Delaney on purchase of TV time by about 2-1: $15.62 million to $7.56 million, according to filings with the FEC.

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In just the three weeks alone leading up to the June 23 primary, Trone’s campaign spent $4.36 million with his long-time media buyer, Washington, D.C.-based Canal Partners Media, according to his latest disclosure report—filed with the FEC Wednesday evening.

During the same period, McClain Delaney’s campaign spent nearly $2.25 million for media buys with SKD Knickerbocker, a Washington-based public affairs firm that has worked for McClain Delaney and her husband, former Rep. John Delaney, who represented the 6^th District from 2012 to 2018.

The blizzard of TV ads was mostly financed by McClain Delaney and Trone themselves: They poured a combined total of $36 million of their personal assets into the contest.

Of that, $11 million came from McClain Delaney: She loaned herself $3.6 million in the last two weeks prior to Primary Day, on top of $7.4 million in personal assets directed earlier into the campaign, according to the FEC reports.

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Prior to the final month of the contest, Trone—co-owner of Total Wine & More, a national retail chain of alcohol beverage outlets—loaned his campaign $25 million, while tossing in another $400,000 in outright donations.

That’s a record for a self-financed U.S. House of Representatives campaign, according to Open Secrets, an independent Washington-based organization that tracks campaign spending. The prior record of $18 million was set in 2018, by Trone when he first ran for the 6^th District seat—which stretches nearly 200 miles from northwestern Montgomery County across four other counties to the western edge of the Maryland Panhandle.

During his unsuccessful run for a Senate seat in 2024—for which he gave up the 6^th District seat—Trone loaned his candidacy nearly $63 million, a near-record for a self-financed U.S. Senate bid.

Personal contributions by candidates to their campaigns are often designated as loans to preserve the option of being repaid through future fundraising. In practice, such repayments are rare, and the loans become de facto donations.

For Trone and McClain Delaney, the cost to air TV ads—and the hundreds of thousands in additional dollars each spent to produce those ads—represented approximately two-thirds of the total costs of each of their respective campaigns.

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Through June 30, Trone reported total operating expenditures of nearly $24.15 million, with about $5.77 million coming in the last three weeks prior to Primary Day, according to his latest FEC report.

McClain Delaney, with nearly $12.07 million in total operating expenditures, spent about half of what Trone did—with $3.88 million of this spending coming in the final month of the campaign.

Beyond the millions drawn from their personal financial resources, McClain Delaney and Trone raised relatively limited amounts of outside donations for their respective candidacies, according to the disclosure reports.

Trone, who declined to accept donations from political action committees (PACs), raised slightly more than $600,000 from outside individual donors. McClain Delaney reported $1.26 million in contributions from individuals as well as PACs and other political committees, including nearly $155,000 during the last month of the primary campaign.

In addition to TV advertising, it appears that the Trone campaign put more than $2.5 million into a digital advertising and social media outreach effort.

One firm alone—Iowa-based Valkyrie Strategies—was paid nearly $2.47 million throughout the campaign, including more than $357,000 in the three final weeks, according to Trone’s FEC reports. Valkyrie Strategies’ website says its specialties include “digital marketing/social media engagement.”

Trone announced late last year that he would seek to reclaim his former seat with criticism of Delaney for several immigration-related votes. Most prominently, this included her support for passage of the Laken Riley Act early in her term, in which she sided with congressional Republicans and the Trump administration. 

McClain Delaney later expressed regret for that vote in several campaign interviews. 

The primary race between Trone and his successor took on an acerbic tone from the outset, with McClain Delaney’s husband taking to social media to blast Trone—his successor in the 6^th District seat.

“April will kick this loser’s [backside]. Why? Lots of reasons but mostly because she has character and integrity,” John Delaney—a wealthy businessman who is currently executive chairman of Chevy Chase-based Forbright Bank—declared on X shortly after Trone announced his candidacy.

In another post on X last week, John Delaney got in a parting shot last week after his wife was certified as the winner of the Democratic primary.

“With the final count in, @April4Congress won her primary by a little over 7%. Very impressive considering … her opponent spent more money than anyone has ever spent in a House race, mostly lying about her views,” Delaney gibed.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine