With 11 months before election, candidates consider Congress, fewer file state paperwork
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While the major movement in Maryland’s congressional delegation is the selection next year of a new United States senator, the shifting sands of political announcements have begun to pile up.
On Tuesday, perennial and persistent congressional candidate Republican Neil Parrott announced he has formed an exploratory committee for the seat in U.S. Congress vacated by his 2022 opponent Rep. David Trone, D-6th, who has announced his candidacy for the open seat in the U.S. Senate.
“My wife and I are talking and praying about whether to run in the 2024 election,” said Parrott, a former state delegate, in a release, a day after he filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. He is not one of the handful of candidates who has filed with the State Board of Elections.
As late as New Year’s Eve of last year, Parrott petitioned for campaign contributions to pay off debts after a second unsuccessful attempt to win the district that Trone, a wine retailer, won again with a loan of over $10 million of his own. Parrott is planning a fundraising event July 7.
Trone announced his candidacy for Senate four months after starting his third term in Congress, waiting three days after the state’s senior U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin said he wouldn’t run in 2024.
More: Maryland's US Senate race to succeed Ben Cardin already a crowded field. Here's who's in.
Other candidates in the 6th Congressional District
Mariela Roca, who ran against Parrott last year, along with Brenda Thiam, who served for two sessions with Parrott in the state Legislature, are among the other Republicans who have registered with the Federal Election Commission in the state’s 6th Congressional District.
Roca has also filed with the State Board of Elections as have Republicans Chris Hyser, a retired state trooper, and Todd Puglisi, a McDonald’s employee who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022.
Democrat Destiny Drake West, the founder and CEO of a policy institute, who has worked in various unelected roles in county, state and federal government, also filed with the Federal Election Commission for the 6th Congressional District seat.
State delegates Joe Vogel and Lesley Lopez, both Democrats representing Montgomery County districts, have also filed with the Federal Election Commission for the seat. Neither has filed with the state board. Each retains their seats in the state Legislature.
Other Democrats who have filed with the state in the 6th District include Stephen McDow, once the director of membership for the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce, and George Gluck, a mathematician who ran in last year’s primary, receiving less than 3,000 votes.
Candidates in the 1st Congressional District
In his last message to supporters last year, Parrott said: “We have set the framework to get two Republican Congressmen in Maryland,” referring to the lawsuit he filed that reshaped the Sixth Congressional District, made it more contiguous, and, as an effect, more competitive for his party.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-1st, whose district encompasses the Eastern Shore, has been the sole Republican in the state’s congressional delegation for more than a decade. He also has exceeded his own pledge on terms, starting his seventh term in the U.S. House earlier this year.
Harris is being challenged in the Republican primary by Chris Bruneau, a U.S. Army veteran and business owner, who has filed with the Federal Election Commission, and announced his candidacy earlier this month. Neither has filed with the State Board of Elections.
As for Democrats, none have yet filed in the 1st Congressional District.
Rep. Raskin contemplating his candidacy
The most important Democrat for what the state’s congressional delegation will look like in 2024 may be former state senator and current U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-8th, whose district is now entirely in Montgomery County, outside Washington, D.C.
He told NPR in an article published online on June 27 that he has written two speeches: one announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate and one announcing his reelection campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I am taking a month or so to carefully assess and reflect upon the overall political context in the country and in Maryland,” said Raskin, in a statement in early May.
He is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, once led by Maryland U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings.
Raskin would lose his seat in the House in January 2025 were he to run for U.S. Senate. He told CNN this month he hopes to decide before the Fourth of July.
Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: With 11 months before election, Maryland candidates consider Congress
