Maryland Rep. April McClain Delaney fought back a challenge from her predecessor Tuesday, joining two Utah Republicans in holding on to their House seats on a night that saw two Democratic colleagues from New York lose their bids for renomination.
McClain Delaney was leading former Rep. David Trone 44 percent to 37 percent in the Democratic primary for Maryland’s 6th District when The Associated Press called the race at 11:38 p.m. Eastern time. Six other candidates split the remainder of the vote.
Trone, who gave up the seat in 2024 for an unsuccessful Senate run, poured $25 million through June 3 into his bid to reclaim the district, which stretches from the Washington suburbs into rural Western Maryland. For her part, McClain Delaney, whose husband held the seat before Trone, loaned her campaign $7.4 million.
It was the second House primary this year to feature an incumbent being challenged by an immediate predecessor who had run for Senate. In Texas, Rep. Julie Elizabeth Johnson lost a Democratic primary runoff last month to former Rep. Colin Allred.
The Maryland primary was bitter and expensive. While both Trone and McClain Delaney largely self-funded their campaigns, Protect Progress, a group with ties to the cryptocurrency industry, waded into the race to support the incumbent. McClain Delaney’s campaign in April sent Trone’s team a cease-and-desist letter, arguing he shouldn’t refer to himself as “Congressman” while asking voters to reelect him when he wasn’t an incumbent officeholder.
