5 Races To Watch In West Virginia And Maryland On Tuesday

Everything was going according to plan for Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol police officer running for the Democratic nomination in Maryland’s open 3rd Congressional District.

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State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, former state Del. Moore Capito, and car dealership owner Chris Miller have been taunting each other nonstop for alleged squishiness in the fight against transgender rights. Another top contender, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, has bypassed the hot-button topic in favor of other issues.

One choice example in the bigoted battle is an ad by a pro-Morrissey group depicting Miller in a blond, feminine wig. “Chris Miller protected they/them, not us,” the ad concludes.

The focus on trans rights is curious in West Virginia, where Republicans have a supermajority in the state legislature. The state has already banned transgender minors from obtaining hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or gender reassignment surgery. The state has also prohibited transgender youth from playing on sports teams that match their gender, though Morrisey has been struggling in court to allow the ban to take effect amid court challenges.

In a recent public poll, Morrissey led the pack, followed by Miller, Capito and Warner. Capito is the son of U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Miller is the son of Rep. Carol Miller.

When Maryland Del. Joe Vogel announced his campaign for Congress just over a year ago, he presented it as a chance for voters in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District to make history by sending only the second member of Generation Z to Capitol Hill.

Vogel, 27, who is Jewish and openly gay, immigrated to the United States as a young boy and quickly became involved in politics. He took office in the Maryland state House at age 25.

Unfortunately for Vogel, April McClain Delaney, an attorney who served as deputy assistant secretary of commerce in the Biden administration, jumped into the race in October, instantly making the primary fiercely competitive. Crucially, Delaney is married to John Delaney, a multi-millionaire financial services entrepreneur who represented Maryland’s 6th from 2013 to 2019 and mounted an unsuccessful presidential campaign for 2020.

Thanks to the couple’s shared fortune, April McClain Delaney has been able to lend her campaign $1 million of her nearly $2 million haul, providing her a critical edge over Vogel, who had raised less than $700,000 as of the end of April.

Delaney’s experience working for Biden won her the endorsement of the Washington Post editorial board.

Vogel has tried to make the race a referendum on Delaney’s personal wealth, status as the former congressman’s wife, and friendship with prominent conservatives like Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Delaney would be the third straight super-rich Democrat to represent the seat that stretches from affluent Washington suburbs to the state’s western panhandle. (Trone, the liquor magnate self-funding his Senate bid, succeeded John Delaney in Maryland’s 6th.)

Vogel has gotten some help in this task from an LGBTQ+ super PAC and some other outside groups.

But Delaney’s moderate profile and ability to self-fund are evidently a draw for some Democrats fearful of letting what was once a swing seat slip through the party’s grasp with the wrong nominee. Thanks to its rural portion, Biden carried Maryland’s 6th by just under 10 percentage points in 2020.

“We’re down by two seats right now in the House of Representatives,” progressive Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said at an event in support of Delaney covered by The Washington Post. “Every seat counts.”