David J. Trone is the Member of Congress for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. Trone is a Democrat, and is serving his first term, which began January 2019. The district is a Democratic safe seat, and he won the general election with 57.5% of the vote. He had previously run for and lost the 2016 primary election for Maryland’s 8th District. He does not currently have committee-level assignments but is a member of the Democratic Caucus. On his website, Trone makes his positions on most major issues visible and clearly-stated. He emphasizes his philanthropy and entrepreneurial savvy, while also appealing to fairly mainstream Democratic ideology, which fits well with his constituency. His main three issues are education, veterans, and the opioid crisis. On education, Trone believes in increasing funding for schools and educators and closing the achievement gap. He believes that this is crucial to raising the level and quality of education in public schools for all students, regardless of their background. On veterans, he seeks to bolster the funding for Veterans’ Assistance healthcare, including mental health and post-traumatic stress therapy, decrease homelessness, and generally ensure that no soldier comes home facing undue challenges to their welfare. On the opioid crisis, Trone wishes to use governmental agencies like the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to plan for a massive response to attenuate its effects on the population.
The 6th Congressional District of Maryland is a mostly urban (~85%) district in Maryland. Although much of the district is farmland, it encompasses mostly urbanized Montgomery County, which is adjacent to Washington, D.C., as well as Frederick, the second-largest city in the state behind Baltimore. Trone addresses the concerns of rural farmers and landowners, located largely in the wholly-encompassed counties to the northwest, while also catering to the heavy business interests found in-district, particularly in proximity to the capital. It is not an incredibly diverse district; it is 68% white, 14% black, 11% Asian, and 13% Hispanic. The reason for this is the subject of a current Supreme Court lawsuit, which contests that Democrats gerrymandered the district to cover vastly white regions of western Maryland while sharply excluding the regions heading east towards the historically black city of Baltimore. The neighboring 8th district and especially the 7th next to it hold most of the black population, and therefore the Democratic vote once again. Additionally, the three western counties (Garret, Allegheny, Washington) bordering West Virginia would be solidly Republican districts, but their representation is diluted by including the overwhelmingly wealthy and Democratic suburbs immediately northwest of the District of Columbia.
Michael J. Hough is the General Assembly (State House) Senator for Maryland District 4. He has served as State Senator since 2015. As a Republican, he occupies a safe seat, having won 67.2% of the vote in the elections. He is on the Judicial Proceedings Committee and the Maryland Veterans Caucus. Hough “believes in the founding principles of our country; limited government, individual responsibility, and lower taxes.” He supports lenient and reformist justice for non-violent criminals, while increasing penalties for violent offenders. He stands for the protection of property rights from the government and supports Americans’ Second Amendment rights. He is considered one of the most conservative state senators in Maryland by some sources. As for State Delegates, Maryland has 3 in the 4th District: Barrie S. Ciliberti, Daniel L. Cox, and Jesse T. Pippy. All three are Republicans in safe seats in District 4. Ciliberti has been in office since 2015. He is on the Appropriations committee. Ciliberti is a mainstream Republican; he supports tax reductions, the right to life, and the Second Amendment. Cox was elected in 2018, and therefore has no committee assignments yet. Dan Cox makes his stances clear on all pivotal issues: the right to life, Second Amendment rights and other defenses from government overreach, property rights, thorough border security and deportation of illegal immigrants, and galvanizing the rights of farmers. Finally, Pippy has been in the House of Delegates since the 2018 election. He has no appointments or committees at the time. His main focal point in the House is on modernizing Maryland’s economic structure with market capitalism aligned towards small businesses. He tends to take a moderate Evangelical-conservative position on most other issues.
Maryland’s 4th State Senate District is overwhelmingly rural and white. It is drawn specifically to exclude the more populous and diverse cities of Frederick and Carroll Creek. Because of its heavily agricultural constituency, all state-level representatives thoroughly address their commitment to farmers and ensuring that their needs are being met through legislative means. 91% of the district is white, so it is decidedly lacking in diversity.