Being rich can get a person plenty of influence in America. Yet it may not be enough to help keep, or win back, a congressional seat — especially when someone else can rely on a massive fortune as well. 

Two wealthy Democrats have put more than $35 million of their own money towards their campaigns fighting each other for a House seat in western Maryland — an outsized amount of attention in a race that will do nothing to decide control of Congress.

“What a frickin’ waste,” Rep. April McClain Delaney told her coalition of paid canvassers and volunteers last weekend after describing the cash both she and her opponent, former Rep. David Trone, have thrown into their midterm ambitions. 

Across the country, established Democrats are fending off insurgent challenges from the left in what is viewed in some circles as an inflection point that bears resemblance to the Tea Party wave that remade Republicans’ congressional identity in the 2010 midterms. 

The battle for Maryland’s sixth congressional district is not one of those races.

Nor is it like the Kentucky U.S. House primary earlier this spring, where incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, faced President Donald Trump’s wrath and lost his seat. That race set a record for House primary advertising spending — a mark that the standoff in Maryland has approached. 

There is no scandal here, no act of betrayal, no moment of party abandonment to explain the barrage of attack ads blanketing one of the country’s most expensive media markets.

There is, however, a sense that the Tuesday contest is an example of politics not working in a way that’s in the best interest of the public. Several other Democrats are also on the primary ballot, but have largely been blocked out by the personal feud playing out between the two major spenders. 

And in a year where Democrats are keen on making concerns about affordability and the economy major campaign issues, the spectacle of the campaign threatens to undercut the sincerity of that argument. 

“It doesn’t help the case that the idea of democracy is that all of us can participate if the only way you can participate is by spending this much money,” a candidate in a separate down-ballot race in Maryland told MS NOW, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Whatever happens Tuesday, the seat will realistically go on to stay in Democratic hands this fall. The district stretches from the Washington suburbs and along the state’s borders with West Virginia and Pennsylvania. While the last election was close in 2024, when McClain Delaney won by a little over six points against a GOP challenger, it is not a realistic target for Republicans given the likelihood that the midterms will be a referendum on the president. 

Federal campaign finance records show the 70-year-old Trone has put more than $25 million of his own money in the race. McClain Delaney, 62, has countered with around $10 million to defend her seat so far. 

Both McClain Delaney and Trone carry well-known names in Maryland politics. She’s the wife of the district’s former congressman John Delaney, a financier who left Congress after the 2018 midterms for a longshot White House run. Trone then held the seat until a failed U.S. Senate campaign two years ago where he lost the primary. 

The co-founder of the prolific Total Wine stores, Trone is a reliable political self-funder, and loaned his losing 2024 Senate effort more than $60 million. Out of office, he’s taken issue with the congresswoman’s approach while Trump and his allies run Washington.

“She has violated what the sixth district expects from a Democrat, and that’s voting with the Republicans,” Trone said. 

Distinctions aren’t exactly apparent for voters in this race who aren’t obsessed with the minutiae, given that both its old and new congress members are reliably blue Democrats with a few blurry exceptions. The two have targeted one another over what they have tried to portray as GOP-friendly decisions. Attempts range from bipartisan immigration and defense votes from McClain Delaney, where she’s broken from many in her own party, to Trone having supported congressional term limits alongside Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

In making his case, Trone has emphasized his ability to bring money back to the district, a practice bolstered by the fact that he served on the House committee dealing with the flows of federal money while in Washington. McClain Delaney has worked to label him as someone who, in her words, is “incredibly transactional,” while she leads “from the heart” at a time when she believes people are scared and need comfort from her as “a big mama bear.” 

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Making campaign rounds before primary day at a Juneteenth event, Trone was recognized frequently by community members for his television ads. 

That notoriety could be a difference maker, even though the state’s governor and members of Congress from Maryland have chosen to side with his rival. “All those folks don’t make a damn bit of difference in this district,” Trone said. 

No one outside of politics is ever really clamoring to see more campaign ads, and the tacts being taken have only inspired more animosity. “My opponent is running on basically blatant lies,” Trone said, while McClain Delaney contends that the former congressman has a tendency to “say anything, do anything, and spend anything, particularly against a woman.” 

There’s a distortion aspect to big money in politics that can go unnoticed, or ignored, by voters at large. The Maryland race is no exception. There are those disgruntled by the advertising and tone in the primary. But the throughline that the candidates’ deep pockets was the reason for the inundation hadn’t broken through. 

“I voted for April, and I voted that way because I don’t like Trone’s advertisements,” said 79-year-old Rosanne Sabatelli. 

As voters made their decisions in the closing days, the candidates’ own signs placed near the entrance of an early voting stop distilled how absurd the race has become. 

On the right, one sign urged the public to re-elect congresswoman April McClain Delaney. 

On the left, another asked voters to do the same thing for Democrat David Trone. 

If this all sounds confusing, well, it is. And it’s gotten to the point that even Republicans have taken notice. 

“That is kind of deceptive, because he’s not technically the incumbent, she is,” 43-year-old GOP voter Jennifer Hugi said. 

And while both leading candidates have put their wealth towards the election, there’s one vote that they can’t earn: their own. Neither Trone or McClain Delaney live in the district they have invested so deeply in trying to represent next year. 

“I don’t need the job, but I love making a difference,” Trone said. “I don’t want to sit on a damn beach. I don’t want to do nothing.”

Hunter Woodall

Hunter Woodall covers politics for MS NOW. He’s reported on politics and presidential campaigns for The Associated Press and CBS News and reported on Congress for The Minnesota Star Tribune.