Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Dist. 39) is running for Maryland congressional District 6 after its current representative, Democrat David Trone, said he would be running for U.S. Senate in a bid to succeed Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), she announced this week.
“As a mom of two young boys and as a proven legislator, I’m running for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District to fight for your family, for mine, for all of us. We need leaders with real life experience, focused on what matters to get things done,” Lopez tweeted Thursday.
Lopez currently represents parts of Germantown and Montgomery Village in the Maryland General Assembly. Lopez, 39, was first elected to the House in 2018. She previously worked as an educator and as a broadcast journalist.
In 2022 and 2023, Lopez served as president of the Maryland Women’s Legislative Caucus. She was considered by many progressives in the state to be instrumental this session in garnering support for a package of laws that guaranteed reproductive rights for Marylanders. She was also chairwoman of the Montgomery County Delegation Metro Washington Area Committee. She successfully sponsored legislation focused on student loan reform, immunizations and healthcare reform this past session.
Freshman Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17) launched his campaign for the same seat last month. Vogel represents parts of Rockville and Gaithersburg.
Republican Mariela Roca, an Air Force veteran, is also running for the seat.
Other names of potential candidates floated by political observers include state Sen. Brian Feldman (D-Dist. 15), Del. Lily Qi (D-Dist. 15), former Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner, April McClain-Delaney, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information for the U.S. Department of Commerce and wife of John Delaney, who previously held the congressional seat. Former Del. Neil Parrott (R-2A) who previously ran against Trone for the seat has also been named as a potential contender on the Republican side.
Cardin announced last month that he would not seek reelection. Trone’s campaign leaves the field open for candidates for that congressional seat.
Trone is the multimillionaire co-owner of Total Wine & More, which gives him the ability to self-fund, as he did in his campaign for Maryland congressional District 6. Lopez, Vogel and other Democratic candidates will likely have a tougher time without that money in a district that includes Frederick County and isn’t solidly blue.
Trone narrowly beat then-Del. Neil Parrott (R-2A) in the 2022 race for the congressional seat in what was considered to be the state’s most competitive congressional race, thanks largely to redistricting.
Trone and Parrott had previously faced off in 2020, when Trone handily won, 59% to 39%. But last year, they were running in a district dramatically altered by a redistricting plan enacted by the Maryland General Assembly—after an earlier plan had been rejected by a state judge, ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by Parrott and several other plaintiffs.
Lopez could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
