2020 presidential candidate’s spouse wins primary for David Trone’s Maryland House seat

Former Biden administration official April McClain-Delaney prevailed over a crowded field to win the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. 

The Associated Press called the race for Delaney at 10:21 p.m. She won 39.15% of the vote, with 13,544 votes, a plurality in a field with 15 other candidates, according to unofficial results from the Maryland Secretary of State’s office. She will face Republican Neil Parrott in the general election in a race that is favored for Democrats. 

“Thank you to everyone who came out to support me today. From Montgomery to Garrett County we will continue this journey to keep the seat blue!” Delaney said after the race was called.

Delaney previously served as deputy assistant secretary for communications in the U.S. Commerce Department. She is the wife of former Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., who represented the district for six years and ran for president as a Democrat in 2020. She is running to succeed Rep. David Trone, D-Md., who vacated the seat after three terms in Congress to run for U.S. Senate.

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April McClain-Delaney speaks after she won the Democratic nomination for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District on May 14, 2024.  (April McClain Delaney/X)

In an upset, Trone lost the Senate primary to Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a newcomer to national politics who could be the first Black woman from Maryland ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Alsobrooks will face former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in the general election.

Delaney won the primary for Trone’s seat with backing from several high-profile Democrats, including former House Speaker and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md. She raised more money than any other candidate in the race and self-funded her campaign with a $1 million loan. 

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Rep. David Trone, a Democrat running for Senate in Maryland, vacated his seat in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District to mount an unsuccessful bid for Senate.  (Screenshot/Fox 5)

Before serving in the Biden administration, Delaney worked as a communications lawyer and an entrepreneur who focused for some 25 years on the regulation of communications satellites as well as safeguarding the digital privacy of children.

Delaney was born and raised in Idaho, where her father was a russet potato farmer. 

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2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado, left to right, former Representative John Delaney and Steve Bullock, governor of Montana, stand on stage during the Democratic presidential candidate debate in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. (Anthony Lanzilote/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

She met her husband, John Delaney, at Georgetown University Law Center and the two were married in 1990. They have four children together. 

John Delaney was the first Democrat to announce a run for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination in 2020, though his short-lived campaign ended before the Iowa caucuses that year. A former businessman who was once the youngest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange, Delaney ran as a centrist opposed to far-left policies advocated by some of his rivals in the primary, including “Medicare-for-all.” 

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John Delaney dropped out of the presidential contest in January 2020, citing a lack of support for his candidacy. 

Fox News Digital’s Tyler Olson, Brandon Gillespie and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.