Latecomers found themselves stuck in the hallway or sitting on the floor Thursday night as constituents packed Poolesville Town Hall for the Maryland 6th Congressional District Republican Candidates Forum.
The event was the first of this election cycle attended by candidates Dan Cox, the 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee, and Neil Parrott, a former state delegate who ran unsuccessfully for the 6th District seat in 2020 and 2022. Candidates Chris Hyser, Mariela Roca, Tom Royals and Brenda Thiam returned for their second forum, which was sponsored by the Legislative District 15 Republican Club.
Hyser is a retired Maryland state trooper who lives in Frederick. Roca, who also lives in Frederick, is an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan and a former federal employee. Royals, a retired Naval flight officer who also served in Afghanistan, is the sole Montgomery County resident of the six candidates. He lives in Germantown and is an IT sales executive. Thiam, of Hagerstown, previously represented District 2B in the Maryland General Assembly and was a special education teacher.
The primary election will be held May 14.
While the six candidates shared similar opinions on most of the issues presented at the forum, sparks began to fly when Hyser seemed to critique the military background of Roca and Royals. Hyser referenced his time training police officers in Iraq and providing protection for the Army Corp of Engineers in Afghanistan in response to a question about the U.S. role in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“I am the only candidate up here that has served on the battlefield,” Hyser said to objections from panelists and the audience. “I pulled injured, dying and dead patriots off the battlefield. I did not fly over, riding around in a plane, push a button and drop a bomb. I am for peace, and because of that, I would broker peace with Israel and Palestine for a permanent ceasefire.”
Hyser was the only candidate to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, with all other candidates giving full-throated support for the U.S. to continue providing foreign aid to Israel. While the candidates didn’t push back on Hyser’s views on the war, they called out his comments that seemed aimed at Roca and Royals and interrupted his remarks.
“You don’t know what I did when I was in Afghanistan, if you don’t know the things that I saw. I was this far away from terrorism every single day,” Roca said, holding her hands a few inches apart.
Royals also defended his background.
“[Hyser] has no idea what he’s talking about,” Royals said. “I was awarded an Air Medal, I fought in the war on terrorism … . I served on active duty for eight years.”
Another hot topic was whether the federal government should have any involvement in local education.
“I don’t co-parent with the government,” Roca said. She said she supports abolishing the U.S. Department of Education and restricting the FBI, two agencies that she said have been “weaponized against parents.”
Royals specifically indicated he supports opt-out policies for families regarding public school curriculums.
“Parents are the fundamental primary educators of their children,” Royals said. “Parents also have fundamental rights regarding the education of their children Those rights include knowing what’s in the curriculum, knowing what’s being taught in the classroom, and the ability to opt out of anything that they find objectionable in the curriculum.”
Thiam said she would support abolishing the Department of Education.
“The parent has to be the driver of the bus. The school system can sit in the passenger’s seat,” she said.
When it came to the presidential race, all six said they didn’t believe the 14th Amendment of the Constitution would justify removing former President Donald Trump from the November election ballot because of his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Parrott, Roca and Thiam noted that they didn’t believe that the attack was an insurrection.
All six candidates said they were anti-abortion, with Parrott urging voters to vote against a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion as a right in the Maryland constitution. Parrott previously represented Washington County in the General Assembly.
Throughout the forum, the candidates tried to set themselves apart as the ideal nominee by emphasizing how they’d attract votes and how they’d put Republican ideals into action if elected. Cox, an Emmitsburg resident, frequently referenced his endorsement from Trump during previous campaigns, while Parrott and Thiam promoted their experience in the Maryland General Assembly. Roca and Royals cited their military backgrounds as a benefit and Hyser touted his outsider perspective.
All of the candidates cited immigration at the country’s southern border and the economy among their top campaign issues.
“The issue is what we need is [members of Congress] that have a backbone to start dragging these officials in that are not following the law and cross-examining them in front of the nation to expose what they’re doing,” Cox said, speaking about immigration.
Roca said she considered control of the southern border one of her top issues because she is concerned about drugs being brought into the country.
“Fentanyl is coming in in mass amounts and killing our sons and daughters,” Roca said, noting that she’d support legislation that would “force the hand of those who don’t want to secure the border.”
Hyser said his solution was to “build the wall long and tall” and continue construction of a border wall, which began during the Trump administration.
While some questions focused on international conflict—all six candidates said the country should assess and pull back on its funding for Ukraine during its war with Russia—the hopefuls also discussed hyperlocal issues, such as the reopening of White’s Ferry, which previously transported people and vehicles between Poolesville and Leesburg.
Cox said he believed he would be the right candidate to build bipartisan support between Maryland and Virginia officials to reopen the ferry because of his experience in the General Assembly. He served as a state delegate representing District 4 from 2018-2022.
“When you look at brokering those kinds of deals, the issue at the table is who is willing to stand up to the Democrats that are pulling those funds,” Cox said. “I know how to get things done.”
Parrott said the closing of White’s Ferry was “a travesty,” and suggested potentially building a bridge—to the vocal displeasure of the audience.
“No? That’s good! Thanks for saying that, I’ll work with you,” Parrott said.
