The previous boundaries of the district were the subject of a Supreme Court lawsuit over partisan gerrymandering. The court ruled that taking into account partisan advantage when redistributing is "not judiciable" in federal courts, leaving it to the states.[4] In 2012, the district was found to be the ninth least compact congressional district in the United States.[5]
John Delaney, who represented the district after unseating 11-term incumbent republican Roscoe Bartlett, gave up the seat in 2018 to focus on his bid for president and was succeeded by fellow Democrat David Trone, who won re-election in 2020 as well. However, after redistricting in 2022, the district became much more competitive, giving up a portion of heavily Democratic Montgomery County in exchange for a more Republican-leaning portion of Frederick County. The district leans just slightly Democratic, with the heavily conservative, white, and rural regions of Western Maryland being balanced out by politically competitive Frederick County and heavily Democratic and culturally diverse suburbs in Montgomery County such as Gaithersburg and Germantown.[6] Nevertheless, Trone was re-elected by nearly 10 points over Maryland House of Delegates member Neil Parrott.
History
The Maryland 6th District was one of the original districts that had a congressman starting in 1789. At that time, the district essentially had what remained its modern boundaries, consisting of the Maryland panhandle and areas eastward, all the way to the modern western boundary of the District of Columbia. However, after the 1790 census Maryland's representation increased to 8 congressmen. (Women would not be elected to Congress until 1916.) The new sixth district was in the north-east corner of the state east of Baltimore, covering essentially the modern counties of Harford, Cecil and Kent.[7]
For most of the time from 1873 to 2013, the 6th was a mostly rural district anchored in western Maryland. It was in Republican hands for all but one term from 1943 to 1971, before conservative Democrat Goodloe Byron won it in 1971. He died in 1978 and was succeeded by his widow, Beverly, who held it for seven terms before being ousted by a more liberal challenger in the 1992 Democratic primary. Republican Roscoe Bartlett won the general election, and was reelected without serious challenge nine more times.
However, redistricting after the 2010 census significantly altered the 6th. It lost much of heavily Republican Carroll County, as well as the more rural and conservative portions of Frederick County, to the heavily Democratic 8th District. It also lost its shares of Baltimore and Harford counties, as well as another portion of Carroll, to the already heavily Republican 1st District. Taking their place was a heavily Democratic spur of western Montgomery County, which was only connected to the rest of the district by a tendril in Frederick County.
The new map turned the 6th from a heavily Republican district into a Democratic-leaning district. While John McCain carried the 6th with 57 percent of the vote in 2008,[8]Barack Obama would have carried the new 6th with 56 percent.[9] This was mainly because the Montgomery County portion had almost three times as many people as the rest of the district combined.
In his bid for an 11th term, Bartlett was defeated by Democrat John Delaney, who lives in the Montgomery County portion of the district, by over 21 points. Proving just how Democratic this district was, in 2014, Delaney narrowly won a second term against Republican Dan Bongino. Delaney only won one county in the district. However, that one county was Montgomery, where Bongino lost by over 20,500 votes.[10]
In 2013, Republican voters filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the Democratic legislature and Governor Martin O'Malley had engaged in partisan gerrymandering, redrawing the 6th district after the 2010 census in a way that intentionally and unconstitutionally diluted Republican voters by including parts of the heavily Democratic Washington suburbs. A federal district judge initially dismissed the lawsuit, as did the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, for failure to state a claim. The Republicans appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in 2015 that the lower courts had improperly dismissed the case. The case went back to the lower courts where a three judge panel ruled that the Republicans could not prove that John Delaney's election in 2012 was a result of the redistricting. Republican voters again appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case, Benisek v. Lamone, in December 2017.[11][12] In June 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that questions of partisan gerrymandering represented a nonjusticiable political question and remanded the case back to the district court with instructions to dismiss the case.
Constance Morella is an American politician and diplomat. She represented Maryland's 8th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2003. She served as Permanent Representative from the U.S. to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2003 to 2007. She is on American University's faculty as an Ambassador in Residence for the Women & Politics Institute. She was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) by President Barack Obama in 2010.
Maryland's 8th congressional district is concentrated entirely in Montgomery County. Adjacent to Washington, D.C., the 8th district takes in many of the city’s wealthiest inner-ring suburbs, including Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and Potomac. It also includes several more economically and racially diverse communities, the most populous of which are Rockville and Silver Spring.
The U.S. state of Alabama is currently divided into seven congressional districts, each represented by a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Pennsylvania's 6th congressional district is a district in the state of Pennsylvania. It includes all of Chester County and the southeastern portion of Berks County including the city of Reading and its southeastern suburbs. The district is represented by Democrat Chrissy Houlahan, who has served in Congress since 2019. As currently drawn, the district is among the wealthiest in Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania redrew the district in February 2018 after ruling the previous map unconstitutional.
Ohio's 3rd congressional district is located entirely in Franklin County and includes most of the city of Columbus. The current district lines were drawn in 2022, following the redistricting based on the 2020 census. It is currently represented by Democrat Joyce Beatty.
Pennsylvania's first congressional district includes all of Bucks County and a sliver of Montgomery County in southeastern Pennsylvania. It has been represented by Brian Fitzpatrick since 2019.
South Carolina's 1st congressional district is a coastal congressional district in South Carolina, represented by Republican Nancy Mace since January 3, 2021. She succeeded Democrat Joe Cunningham, having defeated him in the 2020 election. Cunningham was the first Democrat to represent the district since the 1980s.
Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh and much of Allegheny County, as well as some of Westmoreland County. Since January 3, 2023, it has been represented by Summer Lee.
Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district includes all of Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties; and parts of Monroe County. The district is represented by Democrat Susan Wild.
Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court ruling that was significant in the area of partisan redistricting and political gerrymandering. The court, in a plurality opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia and joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas, with Justice Anthony Kennedy concurring in the judgment, upheld the ruling of the District Court in favor of the appellees that the alleged political gerrymandering was not unconstitutional. Subsequent to the ruling, partisan bias in redistricting increased dramatically in the 2010 redistricting round.
Aruna Miller is an American civil engineer and politician who is serving as the 10th lieutenant governor of Maryland since 2023. Miller, a Democrat, is a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing Legislative District 15 in Montgomery County. Miller ran for Congress in 2018 to represent Maryland's 6th congressional district, and lost the Democratic primary to David Trone.
John Kevin Delaney is an American politician, businessman, and former attorney who was the United States representative for Maryland's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. He was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. The term "gerrymandering" was coined after a review of Massachusetts's redistricting maps of 1812 set by Governor Elbridge Gerry noted that one of the districts looked like a mythical salamander.
Ryan Anthony Costello is an American politician, lobbyist and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 6th congressional district from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected to the Congress in the 2014 midterms. Costello previously served on the Chester County Board of Commissioners (2011–2015), which he chaired from 2013 to 2015.
The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Maryland were held on November 6, 2018, electing the eight U.S. representatives from the State of Maryland, one from each of the state's eight congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other offices, including a gubernatorial election, other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Maryland was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the eight U.S. representatives from the state of Maryland, one from each of the state's eight congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. On March 17, 2020, Governor Larry Hogan announced that the primary election would be postponed from April 28 to June 2 due to coronavirus concerns. On March 26, the Maryland Board of Elections met to consider whether in-person voting should be used for June's primary, and recommended that voting in June be mail-in only.
David John Trone is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 6th congressional district. The district includes most of the western third of the state, but the bulk of its population is in the outer northern suburbs of Washington, D.C. Trone founded and co-owns Total Wine & More with his brother, and served as the company's president until December 2016.
Benisek v. Lamone, 585 U.S. ____ (2018), and Lamone v. Benisek, 588 U.S. ____ (2019), were a pair of decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States in a case dealing with the topic of partisan gerrymandering arising from the 2011 Democratic party-favored redistricting of Maryland. At the center of the cases was Maryland's 6th district which historically favored Republicans and which was redrawn in 2011 to shift the political majority to become Democratic via vote dilution. Affected voters filed suit, stating that the redistricting violated their right of representation under Article One, Section Two of the U.S. Constitution and freedom of association of the First Amendment.
Rucho v. Common Cause, No. 18-422, 588 U.S. ___ (2019) is a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court concerning partisan gerrymandering. The Court ruled that while partisan gerrymandering may be "incompatible with democratic principles", the federal courts cannot review such allegations, as they present nonjusticiable political questions outside the jurisdiction of these courts.
The 2024 Maryland's 6th congressional district election will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the United States Representative for Maryland's 6th congressional district, concurrently with elections for the other U.S. House districts in Maryland and the rest of the country, as well as the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Maryland, other elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections. The primary election will be held on May 14, 2024. The 6th district is based in western Maryland and the northwest District of Columbia exurbs and outer suburbs. It takes in all of Allegany, Frederick, Garrett, and Washington counties, as well as portions of Montgomery County. Cities in the district include Cumberland, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Germantown, and Hagerstown.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
