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Standing beside U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in the drizzling rain, April McClain Delaney made her case to represent Maryland’s 6th District to a friendly crowd gathered at Frederick City Hall.

In a speech touting her record of advocacy on keeping kids safe online, her federal advocacy and her close ties to the Biden administration, Delaney called for the party to come together during a time of divisive political rhetoric, even in a race between a dozen Democrats who largely agree with one another on most major issues.

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Maryland voters will decide the winners of several hotly contested races, including a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/14/maryland-democratic-senate-primary/" target=_blank>U.S. Senate seat</a> and House seats in the competitive <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/14/maryland-third-district-primary/" target=_blank>3rd</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/14/maryland-primary-election-6th-district/" target=_blank>6th Districts</a>. Get <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/results/2024/05/14/maryland-primary/" target=_blank>live election results here</a>.

“Win or lose — whether it be a game of cards, whether it be on the football field, whether it be in a business deal or in a political race — how you run the race, how you play the game matters,” Delaney, 59, told the crowd of roughly 40 people at the rally last Saturday.

Unspoken was the name of state Del. Joe Vogel, 27, who has risen to the forefront of the crowd of people seeking to defeat her on May 14 and whose efforts to differentiate himself from Delaney have sharpened in recent weeks.

Vogel, a Gen Z, Latino immigrant who is Jewish and gay, has emphasized his multifaceted identity in seeking to cast himself as a better reflection of Maryland’s progressive values than Delaney, a wealthy lawyer and former Biden administration official who has spent decades rubbing elbows with D.C.’s political class. Delaney is vying to be the first woman in the Maryland delegation since Barbara Ann Mikulski (D) retired from the Senate in 2017.

“There are pundits that are calling this race not just a race for Congress but a quest to define the future of Maryland politics,” Vogel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKbaT0Wz-Hk" target=_blank>said at a candidate forum</a> in March. “I believe that is what it is, and I’m calling this a race to reignite faith in our democracy.”

Tensions between the two have heightened in the lead-up to the primary, with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/09/maryland-sixth-primary-campaign-ads/?itid=ap_katieshepherd" target=_blank>televised contrast ads</a> and political fliers sent to voters’ mailboxes that attack the candidates’ values, integrity and personal relationships. But for many Democrats, the back-and-forth has illuminated another threat looming large in the contest — the risk of losing the House seat to Republicans.

Maryland’s 6th District is one of the most politically diverse in a deep blue state. Democrats have held the House seat since 2013, but legal challenges over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/29/maryland-congress-gerrymandering-redistricting-democrats/" target="_blank">“extreme gerrymandering”</a> in 2022 led to a congressional map that puts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/04/09/maryland-congressional-map-midterm-elections/" target="_blank">more power in Republican voters’ hands</a>. While Democrats <a href="https://elections.maryland.gov/candidacy/documents/Voter_Counts_for_Petitions.pdf" target="_blank">outnumber</a> Republicans in the district, with 1.2 registered Democrats for every 1 registered Republican, the 6th is also home to more than 141,000 unaffiliated voters who could sway November’s general election contest.

“We’re down by two seats right now in the House of Representatives,” Raskin said at the Saturday morning event. “Every seat counts. Every vote counts.”

Among those vying to replace Rep. David Trone (D) in Congress, Delaney has the edge with name recognition in a crowded field of candidates from across the sprawling district. Among them are Hagerstown Mayor Tekesha Martinez, who has raised more than $519,000, mostly from small donors; Ashwani Jain, who is one of the only other candidates with ads on TV; state Del. Lesley J. Lopez (D-Montgomery); and Montgomery County council member Laurie-Anne Sayles.

At forums and campaign events, Democratic contenders have largely focused on their commitment to defending <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/abortion/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">abortion</a> rights, improving economic conditions for working families, increasing access to affordable health care, and other core Democratic values in their bids to replace Trone, who is seeking an open U.S. Senate seat.

Drawing on the number of small-dollar donors who have supported her campaign, Martinez has emphasized her personal connection to the area and commitment to its underserved communities. “It could not be more clear: working people, not big money interests are powering the largest homegrown grassroots movement in this race,” she said in a statement.

But powerful Democrats — both nationally and within Maryland — have flocked to Delaney, who has campaigned on her work with nonprofits seeking to protect children on the internet and improve broadband access in rural areas. Among her supporters are former House speaker Nancy Pelosi,outgoing Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), and former House majority leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). She also has the backing of local politicians in the district, including many prominent Democrats from Frederick and Montgomery counties. Her coffers contained more than twice the campaign money of any other candidate in the race as of the last filing deadline in mid-April. Her husband, John Delaney, held the seat from 2013 to 2019.

No reliable polling has identified a front-runner in this year’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/28/maryland-sixth-district-republicans/" target="_blank">6th District Republican primary</a>, but local political observers expect the winner to face either <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/03/dan-cox-christian-homeschooling-maryland/" target="_blank">Dan Cox</a>, a former state delegate who lost a bid for governor in 2022, or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/26/parrott-trone-maryland-congress-district6/" target="_blank">Neil Parrott</a>, who won his party’s nomination for the seat in the two previous primaries, in November’s general election.

Vogel has won endorsements from the state’s powerful teachers union, the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club, the Latino Democratic Club of Montgomery County and nearly a dozen sitting members of Congress, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Vogel has campaigned on state legislation he co-sponsored to protect reproductive freedoms and his efforts to promote equity in health-care access and to press for gun-control measures.

He has also sought to focus public attention on Delaney’s ideological purity by dredging up<a href="https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?26020073022" target=_blank> decades-old donations</a> to former senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a prominent member of the tea party movement. He has also criticized her family’s personal friendships with figures such as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.; former Republican House speaker Paul D. Ryan, who was in office at the same time as her husband; and conservative pundit Tucker Carlson.

His campaign put those attacks on a <a href="https://www.joevogel.org/media" target="_blank">public-facing webpage</a>, with coded language that indirectly guides political action committees (PACs) to use those claims in political ads aimed at Democratic voters in the district. This increasingly common practice that has popped up in multiple Maryland primary races is <a href="https://campaignlegal.org/update/voters-need-know-what-redboxing-and-how-it-undermines-democracy" target="_blank">known as “redboxing”</a> because the targeted messaging is typically placed inside a red box to draw attention from PACs. Redboxing has drawn criticism from campaign finance experts who say it violates the spirit of federal laws restricting coordination between candidates and PACs that have no limits on how much they can independently spend in a race. While Vogel’s campaign did not put instructions inside a red box, they did use the coded language saying voters “need to see, read, and see on the go” to encourage TV, direct mail and online advertising. The campaign declined to comment on the tactic.

“The [Federal Election Commission] hasn’t taken any action to stop this kind of coordination,” said Aaron McKean, senior legal counsel for campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center. “But anybody who looks at these red boxes would know a candidate is speaking directly to a person who has the money and is ready to spend in support of their election.”

At least three groups — Equality PAC, a political arm of the Congressional Equality Caucus; No Vote Left Behind PAC, which is affiliated with Equality PAC; and the newly formed Common Sense Common Ground PAC — have collectively spent at least $251,187 to support Vogel or oppose Delaney in the race. One of those mailers questioned Delaney’s support for gun-control measures because of investments her husband made in a sporting goods store called Cabela’s, which sells guns and ammunition primarily marketed to hunters. The mailers also attack Delaney for trying to “buy her seat” because she has loaned $550,000 to her campaign, which has raised a total of $1.3 million, according to her latest FEC filings.

In the midst of the negative ad blitz, Vogel’s campaign included a request for civility on the red box page. “Tone should be respectful,” the campaign instructed potential spenders in bold text. “Any contrast drawn should be about the candidates’ approaches to governing and those in their close circles. Voters do NOT need to see hard-hitting negatives.”

In response to the political attacks, Delaney’s campaign sent fliers to voters’ mailboxes saying that “Joe Vogel is spreading lies in your mailbox.” The rest of the campaign mailer touted Delaney’s commitment to protect abortion access and her record advocating for a safer internet as deputy assistant secretary in Biden’s Commerce Department.

Delaney said in an interview that she will not shy away from socializing with and talking to Republicans in her personal or professional life. She said the political diversity of the 6th District demands someone who can reach across the aisle, while staying strong on key Democratic values such as abortion access and reproductive freedoms.

“This is a purple district,” Delaney said. “All the people in your district — Republican and Democrat — how can you represent them, much less get elected, if you’re allergic to speaking to Republicans?”

The advertisements attacking both candidates have led some Democrats to raise concerns that the primary will leave the victor bruised, no matter who wins, in a race where the rallying cry has become “Keep this seat blue.”

At the Saturday rally, M.C. Keegan-Ayer, a Democrat on the Frederick County Council, recounted her own experience in a campaign mired by misinformation and partisan attacks and appealed for unity within the state’s Democratic Party.

“It takes a long time for the party to heal from that kind of a divisive and negative campaign,” Keegan-Ayer said.

A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) among April McClain Delaney's endorsements. Trone has not endorsed in the 6th District race. The article has been corrected.

University of California at Los Angeles, BA in English

Columbia University, MS in Journalism

Katie Shepherd covers Maryland state politics and government for The Washington Post's Metro Desk. She previously covered Montgomery County, Md., and wrote about Health & Science for the Post's National Desk. Before joining The Post, she was a staff writer at Willamette Week in Portland, Ore.

Katie Shepherd

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Attacks fly ahead of Democratic primary in Maryland’s divided 6th District

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