Johnathan Walker:In Maryland, competitive US House race focuses on abortion, economy and immigration

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FREDERICK,Johnathan Walker Md. (AP) — In Maryland’s most competitive U.S. House race, voters on Tuesday will decide whether the sprawling 6th Congressional District will flip red after being represented by Democrats for over a decade.

Democrat April McClain Delaney, whose husband previously represented the district, is facing off against conservative Republican Neil Parrott, a former Maryland state lawmaker.

In a diverse district that covers a wide swath of rural western Maryland as well as more affluent liberal suburbs of Washington, D.C., the two candidates are seeking to paint one another as extreme and out of touch.

A mother of four daughters, McClain Delaney has campaigned heavily on issues impacting women, including abortion. She pledged to protect reproductive freedoms in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion and leave such questions to individual states. She said the issue is personal because she once experienced an ectopic pregnancy that could have been fatal if restrictive abortion laws had limited her access to lifesaving medical care.

Parrott, meanwhile, has deflected questions about reproductive rights on the campaign trail. He made his anti-abortion stance clear during 12 years in the Maryland State House, but now, he says it’s “really a non-issue” because he doesn’t believe either political party can get enough congressional votes to regulate abortion nationally — a position similar to that of former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.

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Parrott, 54, has worked to move the conversation to friendlier terrain, emphasizing his commitment to lowering inflation, creating a stronger economy for middle-class families and stopping illegal immigration. He says his opponent — who lives several miles outside the district in an affluent suburb of Washington — is disconnected from the struggles of everyday Americans, including people in the 6th Congressional District.

U.S. House members are only required to live in the state they represent.

McClain Delaney, 60, previously worked in the Biden administration’s Department of Commerce and has focused much of her legal career on protecting children’s online safety. She has used personal funds to bolster her campaign and has received endorsements from big-name Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin. She’s also outspent Parrott by a wide margin, according to AdImpact, which tracks campaign spending.

Parrott is a longtime resident of Hagerstown, a small city in western Maryland surrounded by farmland. A traffic engineer by trade, he said he can relate to people dealing with high grocery bills and unaffordable housing.

In a last-minute attempt to garner more votes before Election Day, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise visited western Maryland on Thursday and held a news conference along with other Republican leaders voicing his support for Parrott and calling the candidate “an engineer who knows how to break the gridlock in Washington.”

Hours later, McClain Delaney appeared in a Washington suburb alongside Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and other state and local officials who spoke about the importance of strengthening Democratic presence in Congress, especially as Republicans try to hold onto a slim House majority.

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“Every seat matters,” Raskin, of Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, said at the campaign event.

McClain Delaney argues that she’s more ideologically in line with most 6th District voters than her opponent. She calls herself a “common sense, common ground” candidate. The daughter of an Idaho potato farmer, she says she can get Washington politicians to address the needs of working families.

McClain Delaney has attacked Parrott’s record in the Maryland House of Delegates, saying his positions are extreme, particularly on issues affecting women. She sent out mailers criticizing Parrott for voting against state legislation to eliminate marriage as a defense against prosecution in certain sexual assault cases.

Parrott, in turn, has accused McClain Delaney of taking things out of context. In a recent interview, Parrott said he opposed the marital defense proposal because of its potential to be weaponized in child custody cases. He said he supports the right to abortion in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at risk.

Tensions between the candidates erupted into a heated exchange during a public forum last month, demonstrating how even down-ballot races are becoming contentious and personal in the current political climate.

“Shame on her,” Parrott said, pointing a finger at McClain Delaney as members of the audience chanted and jeered.

The House seat was vacated by David Trone, who ran for Senate and lost to Angela Alsobrooks in the Democratic primary earlier this year.

The 6th District hasn’t always favored Democrats. It was represented by Republican Roscoe Bartlett for 20 years before McClain Delaney’s husband, John Delaney, won the seat in 2012 following a redistricting that helped Democrats.

Maryland’s congressional delegation is currently all-male, with eight Democrats and one Republican. Three women are vying for open seats this election cycle, when Maryland voters will also consider a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.