The most expensive House primary in U.S. history was Rep. Thomas Massie's brutal reelection bid in Kentucky last month. The stakes of the $33 million race were massive, involving President Donald Trump's iron political grip on the Republican Party, a purported international cabal of sex criminals, and whether there was space for critics of Israel within the GOP. It ended with Massie's narrow loss to Ed Gallrein, a Trump loyalist. But the battle in Kentucky's 1st District might not be the most expensive primary ever for very long.
A New Spending Record in the Making
A Democratic primary in Maryland's 6th District could smash the existing spending records. While there is some weight to the contest — a key point is purported Democratic complicity with Trump's immigration enforcement — there's also low-level squabbling between two strikingly similar candidates, including over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's decision not to endorse in the contest.
Millionaire Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-Md.) is defending her seat from billionaire David Trone, who represented the district from 2019 to 2025 before giving it up for an unsuccessful Senate bid (and endorsing McClain Delaney as his successor). McClain Delaney's businessman husband, John Delaney, previously held the seat before making an unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid.
Massive Self-Funding
Trone made a fortune founding a successful retail wine company and has loaned his campaign $25 million as of June 3, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission data. McClain Delaney has loaned her campaign $7.4 million and will likely give $5 million more, according to a source close to the race.
McClain Delaney says Trone is a "bored billionaire" out for revenge against the Democrats who endorsed his opponents in past primary races. "It's a retribution project against the governor, against our lieutenant governor, and about how the federal delegation did not support him," McClain Delaney told HuffPost. "It's not as much about me, it's more about his retribution tour, and that's a really sad place to be."
In an interview, Trone said McClain Delaney's comments were dumb, that he is not bored, and that he does tons of philanthropy, including a recent $10 million gift to Johns Hopkins University. "I'm in this because I am just so disappointed in her voting with Republicans time and time again," Trone said.
Key Policy Disputes
In January of last year, McClain Delaney voted for the Laken Riley Act, a bill named after a 22-year-old Georgia woman murdered by an undocumented immigrant who'd previously been arrested for multiple crimes, including theft. The bill, the first Trump signed into law during his second term, requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants arrested for theft or shoplifting — a policy potentially infringing on constitutional due process rights. McClain Delaney was one of 44 House Democrats who voted for the bill, and one of several who has disavowed their vote. She concedes it's a truthful criticism for Trone to make, though she says he makes too much of it.
"That's like the only thing he has. And that was my second week, and most of us who had just come in were in more purple districts," McClain Delaney said. "How would I have known what DHS would become?"
Though Trone has made his opponent's vote for a Republican bill the centerpiece of his TV ads, he's boasted of working with Republicans in other contexts. "I was the fourth-most bipartisan member of Congress," Trone said at a dinner for the Garrett County Democratic Party last week, according to a video obtained by HuffPost. "Every bill I did was bipartisan. That's the way you ought to do it. Bipartisan."
Reproductive Rights and Endorsements
Trone and McClain Delaney have also sought to differentiate themselves on reproductive rights. Trone's mailers and TV ads note he helped fund a women's health clinic that does abortions. Disclosure forms show Trone's nonprofit donated $10,000 to the clinic in 2023 when he was running for Senate. His campaign said he's since cut another $50,000 check to the clinic, but Trone has spent more advertising the gift than he spent on the gift itself. As of mid-May, the campaign had already spent more than $1 million on ads mentioning the clinic, according to a media buying source.
Last week, Trone's campaign released a new ad in which different women read a June 2 letter from Clinton to Trone. "From funding women's clinics and voting for reproductive rights, you have stood on the frontline of the fight for women's equality," Clinton said in the letter. "You've also stood shoulder to shoulder for LGBTQ+ friends. You have never backed down from a fight and I am so thankful for you for staying in the arena."
The ad omits the part of the letter in which Clinton thanks Trone for attending her husband's 80th birthday and for Trone's support for the Clinton Foundation. In response, on Monday McClain Delaney started running a new ad saying, "Hillary Clinton has long supported April McClain Delaney." A narrator touts McClain Delaney's endorsements from Planned Parenthood and various elected Democrats "because of her leadership in fighting to protect choice." The ad urged voters not to "let Trone fool you" and says he's given $800,000 to "anti-choice, pro-Trump Republicans."
Clinton has not endorsed either candidate. Spokespeople for the former first lady did not respond to requests for comment.
Other Candidates and Outlook
Trone and McClain Delaney are just two of eight Democrats competing in the June 23 primary for the 6th District, which stretches from wealthy D.C. suburbs to the western edge of the state. The other candidates are basically being drowned out. One of them, Alexis Goldstein, said putting rich people in government is a recipe for winding up with a guy like Elon Musk slashing public programs. "Deferring to billionaires has had really bad results in the last 18 months," Goldstein told HuffPost. To Goldstein, an ex-banker who worked for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before being fired by Musk's minions, the leading candidates are ignoring the threat that artificial intelligence firms pose to the broader economy.
It's not clear if Trone's spending will lead to victory. McClain Delaney's campaign has released several polls showing her holding a double-digit lead. Trone's campaign, meanwhile, this week released a polling memo suggesting he's ahead by two or three percentage points. Despite spending more on the campaign than his opponent, Trone cast himself as the financial underdog. "She's infinitely rich. She has, clearly, the ability to self-fund, very easily a net worth of perhaps a billion dollars," Trone said. The $25 million he's loaned his current campaign follows the $60 million he spent on his Senate campaign and the $30 million he spent on his previous House races starting in 2016. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index put Trone's net worth at $2.4 billion in 2023, but he seemed uncomfortable with the title, pointing to his hardscrabble upbringing. "I'm self-made, and I've been fortunate in my life to be successful, and I don't ever count or add up money," he said.
