Rep. McClain Delaney claims victory over ex-Rep. Trone after acrimonious primary
Costly contest between incumbent, predecessor featured $33M price tag
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Louis PeckJune 24, 2026 1:17 a.m. | Updated: June 24, 2026 1:28 a.m.
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U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney late Tuesday claimed victory over ex-Rep. David Trone in the costly and acrimonious battle for the Democratic nomination in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District.
“I am thrilled to be your Democratic nominee once again,” McClain Delaney said in a statement after the Associated Press had called the race in her favor. In a comment clearly aimed at the Trump administration, she added, “But as we turn our eyes to November, we must put our differences aside and come together to stand up to the attacks on the communities we love.”
With almost all Primary Day precincts reporting, Delaney led Trone by 44% to 37% of votes cast—a margin of about 2,500 votes—after a contest in which each of the candidates poured in millions of their personal assets in an effort to come out on top.
Trone, who at the beginning of the contest vowed to spend “whatever it takes” to regain the seat he held from 2018 to 2024, funneled more than $25 million of his personal fortunate into the race—a record for a self-funded House race.
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McClain Delaney gave the campaign $7.4 million out of her pocket in a fight over a seat that had been held by either Trone or a Delaney—McClain Delaney’s husband, former Rep. John Delaney, held the seat before Trone—for the past decade and a half.
The battle for the Democratic nomination in the 6th District—along with a 23-way race to succeed long-time Rep. Steny Hoyer in the 5th District, which stretches from Prince George’s County into southern Maryland—were considered the marquee contests in Tuesday’s primary.
Del. Adrian Boafo of Prince George’s County, boosted by Hoyer’s endorsement and heavy spending by political action committees on his behalf, won his primary Tuesday and is expected to be elected as the new 5th District representative in November.
In contrast to four years ago, when the governorship was open, incumbent Democrat Wes Moore had no trouble winning renomination to a second term over token opposition from Eric Felber, a Bethesda-based osteopath. Moore, considered a potential contender for his party’s 2028 presidential nomination, was leading Felber by a nearly 9-1 margin with about two-thirds of Primary Day precincts reporting.
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Despite polls showing a recent decline in his job approval rating, Moore is expected to have little trouble winning a rematch in November against former Del. Dan Cox of Frederick, a MAGA loyalist whom Moore defeated by a 2-1 margin in 2022. Cox won the Republican nomination over eight other candidates, with his main competition coming from Ed Hale, a Baltimore-based soccer team owner and former banker.
While it is considered Maryland’s most competitive congressional district, the 6th District leans to the left, with nearly 30,000 more registered Democrats than registered Republicans as of June 6, according to State Board of Elections data. Most independent analysts expect it to remain in Democratic hands following the general election this November.
Robin Ficker of Boyds, a perennial candidate making his 23rd run for office over the past half-century, appears to have emerged with the Republican nomination to take on McClain Delaney—winning about 43% of the vote against two other candidates.
A family feud
After leaving the House in 2024 to make an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate—during which he spent a near-record $63 million of his personal fortune—Trone announced late last year that he would seek to reclaim the 6th District seat.
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He came at McClain Delaney from her left, criticizing her for several immigration-related votes on which she had sided with the Trump administration and House Republicans early in her term.
However, the contest came to be viewed within Maryland political circles as something of an extended family feud between wealthy residents of the same affluent community—pitting Trone not only against his successor but also John Delaney.
Their common place of residence—Potomac—lies about 10 miles south of the 6th District, the boundaries of which were redrawn in 2022. The district currently starts in Gaithersburg and takes in a swath of northwest Montgomery County that is home to about a quarter of the county’s voters, before extending 200 miles through four counties–Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett—to the western edge of the Maryland Panhandle.
Under the U.S. Constitution, a member of Congress must only reside in the state he or she represents—not in the actual district.
By some published estimates, Trone’s co-owner status in Total Wine & More has made him a billionaire—while John Delaney became a multimillionaire through the creation and sale of health care and banking firms before serving in Congress from 2012 to 2018 and later mounting an unsuccessful bid for president in 2020.
Trone’s entry into the race prompted Delaney to take to social media to blast his wife’s challenger in unvarnished terms.
“April will kick this loser’s [backside]. Why? Lots of reasons but mostly because she has character and integrity. She is faithful and honest. She serves to help people, not for ego. He has none of those qualities,” Delaney declared in a social media post on X shortly after Trone announced his candidacy.
In the economically diverse district—although Montgomery County is among the state’s wealthiest jurisdiction, Allegany and Garrett counties are among Maryland’s poorest in terms of median income—the personal fortunes of Trone and McClain Delaney underwrote a virtually non-stop series of 30-second TV spots centered on hot-button social issues.
In one of her first actions as a U.S. representative, McClain Delaney joined Republicans and 47 other Democrats in voting in January 2025 to pass a bill–known as the Laken Riley Act—requiring the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants accused or convicted of certain property crimes. She was the only Maryland Democrat to support the legislation.
Reflecting on that vote in an interview a month prior to Tuesday’s primary, McClain Delaney said she could not have known in early 2025 that the policy would be carried out by the “lawless” and well-funded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that exists today.
She has since taken a harder line against ICE, notably pushing back against a planned immigration detention center in Washington County. Trone contended that his entrance into the 6th District race in December 2025 prompted McClain Delaney’s shift.
The other hot-button issue that figured prominently in the McClain Delaney vs. Trone TV ad wars was abortion.
Trone took aim at McClain Delaney for her vote in favor of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill passed out of the House with an amendment to block the Defense Department’s policy of providing paid leave to members of the armed services who travel to obtain abortion services. (The amendment was later dropped in House-Senate negotiations.)
Meanwhile, Trone used campaign ads to tout his family foundation’s support for the Women’s Health Center of Maryland in Allegany County. The clinic also serves people in neighboring West Virginia—which has strict limits on services the clinic provides, such as abortion and gender-affirming care.
For her part, McClain Delaney targeted Trone for his association with a controversial Republican figure, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—with whom Trone co-chairs the national non-profit group U.S. Term Limits.
The group has advocated a constitutional convention to consider term limits for members of Congress—triggering McClain Delaney ads accusing Trone of opening the way for other amendments to the U.S. Constitution, such as restrictions on abortion.
Although Trone won some key organizational endorsements during the campaign, McClain Delaney had the backing of the Democratic congressional establishment, including House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York).
In Maryland, she had the endorsement of Gov. Wes Moore (D), and all eight Democrats—two senators and six House members—in Maryland’s congressional delegation.
Trone responded with numerous endorsements from elected officials from within the 6th District, although some critics suggested that those endorsements were influenced by personal financial contributions from Trone to the campaigns of several of those who endorsed him.
In one instance, Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater, an early Trone backer, received a total of $24,000 in contributions from members of Trone’s family in her bid for re-election, according to disclosure reports filed with the State Board of Elections.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine