Total Wine founder David Trone loses costly Maryland primary comeback bid

Former Rep. David Trone, D-Md., fell short in his comeback bid to return to Congress after pouring millions of his personal fortune into the race to unseat an incumbent Democrat. 

Rep. April McClain Delaney, D-Md., defeated Trone on Tuesday in a bruising primary battle for a gerrymandered House seat in western Maryland, according to The Associated Press. 

The intraparty contest was one of the costliest primaries of the 2026 cycle, with more than $32 million spent between both candidates, who had considerable wealth at their disposal to boost their respective campaigns.

It is unclear whether total spending eclipsed the Kentucky primary battle that resulted in the defeat of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., which recently earned the title of the nation’s most expensive House primary. 

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Trone, the billionaire founder of the alcohol retailer Total Wine & More, put more than $25 million of his wealth into the race. Delaney, a freshman lawmaker who served in the Biden administration, spent at least $7 million of her own money to fend off Trone’s primary challenge for a second House term. 

She previously served in the Biden administration as a political appointee in the Commerce Department.

Though both candidates had few policy differences, Trone sharply criticized Delaney for voting for the GOP-authored Laken Riley Act in early 2025. Delaney later said she regretted supporting the law, which requires the detention of illegal immigrants accused or convicted of certain crimes. 

Delaney also denounced Trone for touting support from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an advertisement focused on his defense of abortion rights, despite not receiving a formal endorsement. 

Trone, who represented the district for three terms, previously bankrolled a failed 2024 Senate bid with more than $60 million of his fortune, losing to now-Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md. He notably endorsed Delaney to succeed him in Congress.

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Maryland’s Democratic establishment rallied around Delaney’s campaign in a notable display of unity against Trone’s insurgent campaign. Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and former House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., endorsed Delaney’s re-election campaign. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also backed Delaney’s campaign. 

Meanwhile, Trone touted the endorsement of the state’s largest teachers union.

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Neither Delaney nor Trone reside in the district, which stretches from the rural, Republican-leaning northwestern corner of the state to the heavily Democratic and suburban Montgomery and Frederick counties. Both Democrats live in the affluent Potomac, Md., suburb near Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump came within six points of winning the Democratic-leaning district in 2024, but national Republicans do not view the seat as a top pickup opportunity. 

Delaney’s husband, John Delaney, previously represented the seat from 2013 to 2019 before launching a failed campaign for president in 2020.