Maryland 6: Trone Polls Primary Matchup Against Incumbent McClain Delaney?
November 23, 2025 · 8:40 PM EST
Former Rep. David Trone appears to be actively polling a Democratic primary matchup against his successor, Rep. April McClain Delaney, previewing what could be an expensive and personal fight in Maryland’s 6th District next year.
The poll, currently in the field and obtained by Inside Elections, resembles a typical survey conducted privately by a candidate to gauge their support in a race and test various potential lines of attack against their opponent, as well as their own weaknesses.
The survey tests how Trone would fare against McClain Delaney, and includes a number of potential lines of attack against the incumbent. The level of detail on the anti-McClain Delaney messaging, and the lack of similar testing on anti-Trone messaging strongly suggests Trone commissioned the poll.
It is the clearest sign yet that the former congressman is preparing a comeback bid two years after vacating the 6th District to run for the Senate, and suggests Trone will try to position himself as a more progressive alternative to McClain Delaney. Inside Elections previously reported that Trone had told local elected officials he was interested in running for the seat again.
Trone, who was one of the wealthiest members of Congress thanks to his Total Wine & More empire, represented the 6th District for six years; he first won the seat in 2018, succeeding fellow Democrat Rep. John Delaney, April McClain Delaney’s husband. Trone spent more than $60 million of his own money on his 2024 Senate run, but ultimately came up 11 points short of Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary.
McClain Delaney, a former Commerce Department official under President Joe Biden, won a competitive race to succeed Trone last year, defeating state Del. Joe Vogel in the Democratic primary and former state Del. Neil Parrott in the general election. McClain Delaney won by 7 points as Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by a slightly narrower 6-point margin over Donald Trump.
She is also personally wealthy, and spent $3.9 million of her own money on her campaign.
Inside Elections initially heard of the poll from a respondent in the district. The full questionnaire was available through a link posted in a comment three days ago on a local Maryland politics Facebook page, and was still live on Sunday afternoon.
In addition to testing an initial head-to-head matchup between Trone and McClain Delaney, the poll provided positive and negative information about each candidate, a standard practice in internal surveys used to assess the strength of different messages.
The poll informs respondents that “McClain Delaney votes for Trump's policies more than twice as often as any other Maryland congressional Democrat” and cites her support for the Laken Riley Act as a vote “to expand Trump's cruel immigration policies and to make it easier for ICE to carry out its unconstitutional mass detentions and deportations.” McClain Delaney has voted in favor of Trump’s stated position 18 percent of the time, according to congressional tracker VoteView. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, the next-highest Marylander on the list, has voted with Trump’s position 10 percent of the time.
The poll also tests messaging on McClain Delaney’s votes for the pro-cryptocurrency GENIUS and CLARITY acts, and her vote for the HALT Fentanyl Act, which established minimum sentences for drug-related offenses. Trone has long focused on drug addiction and recovery in his campaigns and in his philanthropic efforts.
The positive messages about Trone focus on his socially progressive views, including his “100% pro-abortion voting record” and his “100% rating from the pro-LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign.” The poll also cites his votes to impeach Trump, limit the pardon power, and ban individual stock trades by members of Congress, as well as his support for taxing billionaires, reversing cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare, and implementing term limits for the Supreme Court.
Finally, the poll tests a brief negative message against Trone, informing voters that he “was forced to apologize for using a racist term,” and used an “anti-woman” approach in his campaign against Alsobrooks and now against McClain Delaney as well. Trone’s apparently accidental use of the derogatory term “jigaboo” in place of “bugaboo” during a March 2024 congressional hearing came at a politically inopportune moment for the congressman, who was losing ground to Alsobrooks in the polls after leading for the entire campaign. Alsobrooks would go on to be elected Maryland’s first Black senator.
Trone has not publicly commented on his plans for 2026, though he recently re-entered the political conversation by co-authoring an op-ed with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in the New York Times. The topic: supporting term limits for members of Congress.