BALTIMORE (AP) — Democrat April McClain Delaney narrowly won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland’s most competitive congressional races that focused on reproductive rights and the economy.
The state’s sprawling 6th Congressional District covers much of rural Maryland and the more affluent liberal suburbs of Washington, DC. The close race didn’t start until Saturday, four days after Election Day.
McClain Delaney, a mother of four daughters whose husband previously represented the district, campaigned heavily on issues affecting women. She pledged to protect reproductive freedoms in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to end the constitutional right to abortion and leave those decisions up to individual states.
McClain Delaney, 60, previously worked at the Biden administration’s Department of Commerce and has focused much of her career on protecting children’s online safety.
She billed herself as a “common sense, common ground” candidate and portrayed her Republican opponent as extremely conservative. As the daughter of an Idaho potato farmer, she said she can get politicians in Washington to address the needs of working families.
“I think we need to turn the page on this divisive, toxic partisanship that’s sweeping through our country,” she told AP in a recent interview.
Republican Neil Parrott campaigned for the seat for a third time and often tried to steer the conversation away from abortion. He dodged questions about the issue despite repeatedly making his anti-abortion stance public during 12 years in the Maryland State House.
Parrott, 54, instead emphasized his commitment to reducing inflation, creating a stronger economy for middle-class families and stopping illegal immigration — all Republican talking points that newly elected President Donald Trump often uses.
Parrott attacked McClain Delaney for living outside the district and said she is out of touch with the struggles of everyday Americans, including many 6th District voters. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are only required to reside in the state they represent.
McClain Delaney used personal resources to strengthen her campaign and outraised her opponent by a significant margin. She received support from major Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin.
In a last-minute effort to gather more votes before Election Day, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise visited western Maryland and voiced his support for Parrott. He called the candidate “an engineer who knows how to break the impasse in Washington.”
Hours later, McClain Delaney appeared in a Washington suburb alongside Maryland Governor Wes Moore and spoke of the importance of strengthening the Democratic presence in Congress, especially as Republicans sought to cling to a slim majority in the House of Representatives. keep.
“Every seat matters,” Raskin, of Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, said at the campaign event.
On Tuesday, many voters in western Maryland said their vote in the 6th District race reflected their strong party loyalty.
Ben and Cate Witmer, who took their 6-year-old daughter to the polls, said they voted for McClain Delaney because she better represents their values and the future they want for their child. They said democracy and women’s rights were top priorities.
Nate Temple, 22, a U.S. Navy veteran who voted for Parrott, said he was focused on the economy. He said the candidates attacked each other harshly, but “I don’t think anyone is as bad as their opponent makes them out to be.”
The House seat was vacated by David Trone, who ran for Senate and lost to Angela Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary earlier this year. Alsobrooks won election to the U.S. Senate, the first black candidate from Maryland to do so.
The 6th District hasn’t always favored Democrats. It was represented by Republican Roscoe Bartlett for 20 years before McClain Delaney’s husband, John Delaney, won the seat in 2012 in a redistricting effort that helped Democrats.
