Parrott in the lead to be Western Maryland's next congressman

Republican Neil Parrott was leading incumbent Democrat David Trone in the race for Maryland's 6th Congressional District into the early hours of Wednesday as the final day of voting in the 2022 midterm election came to a close.

Parrott, a state delegate from Washington County who lost to Trone in 2020, had 102,669 votes to Trone's 98,122, with all 247 precincts reporting. However, elections officials across the district — which includes Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and part of Montgomery County — still had mail-in and provisional ballots to count.

Republicans were poised to reclaim the House, and possibly the Senate, but neither reached the vote threshold for control of either chamber to be called. The 6th District contest in Maryland may be a critical factor in which party controls the House, and thereby largely determines whether President Joe Biden will be able to advance his agenda in the second half of his term.

Trone, who lives in Montgomery County, has had the job since 2018 and took over for fellow Democrat John Delaney, who beat long-time Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Frederick County in 2012, thanks in part to a redrawn district map that favored Democrats.

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A new map adopted in 2022 brought all of Frederick County into the congressional district and includes less of Montgomery County. Republicans hoped the new map brought about in part by Parrott’s lawsuit in state court would flip the seat. The county has been split between the 6th District represented by Trone and the 8th District represented by Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin.

Raskin defeated Trone for the 8th District seat in 2016 despite a significant gap in fundraising, and Parrott hoped to emulate Raskin in 2022. Parrott during his primary victory speech cited Raskin, a former fellow state legislator, as an example of how to defeat Trone.

Trone, owner of Total Wine & More, had more than $6 million in cash on hand for his campaign as of the Sept. 30 filing deadline, while Parrott had less than $500,000.

In the weeks and months leading up to the election, observers said the race could be a toss up.

From the primary to the general

President Joe Biden came to Hagerstown with Trone on Oct. 7 to tour the Volvo Powertrain plant. Parrott said the “only reason” Biden came was because of the 6th Congressional District race.

Trone, who received close to 80 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, spent the intervening months since July touting the bipartisan infrastructure law and its long-term effects.

“It’ll take the number of years to build,” said Trone, of district road projects, during a Sept. 29 phone interview, “but the money is all there.”

The congressman described a similar long-term process for broadband internet buildout, during a Sept. 1 interview after he visited Hagerstown’s Pittsburgh Institute for Aeronautics.

On the campaign trail, the Washington County delegate argued the federal spending caused inflation. Parrott fended off a primary challenge from Matthew Foldi, a young former reporter who had the backing of House Republican leaders Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik, as well as Donald Trump Jr.

“The voters know who’s been working for over 12 years for Western Maryland,” Parrott said in an interview at his Hagerstown campaign’s election headquarters, after the AP had called the primary in his favor. He received over 60 percent the vote in July.

The state’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan also backed Foldi during the primary and did not endorse Parrott in the general election either. Maryland’s sole Republican member of Congress, the Eastern Shore’s Rep. Andy Harris, backed Parrott both in the primary and general.

“Maryland, with a Republican governor, has been gerrymandered so badly that only one Republican could get elected, but this year’s map is very different,” said Rep. Andy Harris, whose district stretches from Worcester County to parts of Baltimore County, in an Oct. 3 interview. Harris was projected by the Associated Press to have won his own race on Tuesday.

Parrott and Trone met at an Oct. 24 forum at Frostburg University hosted by the Beall Institute for Public Affairs, contrasting on major policies such as a strategy to address the opioid issue while remaining largely civil.

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: Parrott leading Trone in race for Md 6th Congressional District