As women seek open congressional seats in Maryland, reproductive rights are front and center

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — In an election where the future of reproductive rights is on the ballot in Maryland and elsewhere across the country, the state’s all-male congressional delegation stands to gain an influx of women.

It could happen in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, where Democrat April McClain Delaney is running against conservative Republican Neil Parrott, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates. They’re competing to represent a wide swath of rural Maryland and more affluent liberal suburbs of Washington, D.C.

In a year when voters also could elect the nation’s first female president, women are vying for two other open seats in Maryland’s 10-member congressional delegation. The delegation has been all-male since former Sen. Barbara Mikulski retired in 2016, but the state has a long history of female officeholders from both parties.

McClain Delaney, a mother of four daughters whose husband previously represented the district, says she wants to protect the reproductive rights of her children and other young people in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion and leave those decisions to the states. She previously worked in the Biden administration’s Department of Commerce and has focused much of her career on protecting children’s online safety.

“I can’t believe that my mother, my daughters’ grandmother, had more reproductive freedoms than they currently do,” she said in a recent interview. She said she once experienced an ectopic pregnancy that could have been fatal if restrictive abortion laws had limited her access to life-saving 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.

That approach also echoes recent efforts by other conservatives and leaders of the anti-abortion movement now struggling to appeal to voters in blue-leaning Maryland. The state’s voters will also consider a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

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 out of touch with 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 has used personal funds to bolster her campaign and 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. Just since the May 14 primaries, Democrats have spent more than $600,000 on advertising in the 6th District race, compared to slightly more than $30,000 spent by Republicans.

Those figures are not expected to change much between now and Nov. 5, with McClain-Delaney having a nearly 20-1 advantage in ad spending reserved the rest of the way. Neither candidate has received much support from the national parties or outside groups, a possible indicator that both sides view the seat as safely Democratic.

Parrot 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.

“I have a history here,” he said. “I've served in the community here.”

But McClain Delaney, 60, argues she’s more ideologically in line with most 6th District voters. 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, particularly on issues impacting women.

Parrott, in turn, has accused McClain Delaney of lying and taking things out of context. In an interview last week, Parrott 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 the last few minutes of a recent public forum.

“Shame on her,” Parrott said, pointing a finger at McClain Delaney, who denied putting out false information 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.

Seven of Maryland's eight House members are Democrats, as are the state's two senators. Three women are vying for open seats this election cycle.

In Maryland’s deep blue 3rd Congressional District, state Sen. Sarah Elfreth won a crowded Democratic primary. Her main rival was former U.S. Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, who defended the U.S. Capitol against Jan. 6 rioters. In 2018, Elfreth became the youngest woman elected to the state Senate. She’s pledged to prioritize reproductive health and affordable child care.

Reproductive freedom is also at the forefront of the U.S. Senate race between former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Alsobrooks, a Democrat who argues women have too much at stake to risk losing Democrats’ thin Senate majority. She said having more women at the table is a big deal.

“I believe it makes our policies more complete,” she said in a recent interview. “And so this is a moment that gives us the opportunity to make sure that we are adding women — mothers and daughters and sisters — to the Senate to ensure that the variety of lived experiences are represented in that body.”

This story has been corrected to reflect that Maryland’s delegation has 10 members, not nine, and that there are nine Democrats, not eight, in the delegation

April McClain-Delaney, Democratic candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Gaithersburg, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

April McClain-Delaney, Democratic candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Gaithersburg, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

April McClain-Delaney, Democratic candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Gaithersburg, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Neil Parrott, Republican candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Frederick, Md. (AP Photo/Alyssa Howell)

Neil Parrott, Republican candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, speaks during a press conference, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Frederick, Md. (AP Photo/Alyssa Howell)

Neil Parrott, Republican candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, poses for a portrait after speaking during a press conference, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Frederick, Md. (AP Photo/Alyssa Howell)

April McClain-Delaney, Democratic candidate for Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, poses for a portrait, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Gaithersburg, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Wall Street was on track to open with gains Thursday on another big day for corporate earnings and the latest government economic data.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4% before the bell while futures the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved 0.1% higher. Nasdaq futures pointed up 0.8%.

Elevance Health shares skidded 12.3% after the health insurer missed Wall Street's third-quarter profit projections and warned that rising medial costs threatened to drag on future earnings.

Railroad operator CSX tumbled 4.7% in extended trading after it said Wednesday that it expects only modest volume growth the rest of the year as the Southeast rebuilds after two major hurricanes.

The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad reported per-share profit for its most recent quarter that came in lower than analysts had forecast and said it expects a $50 million drag on its fourth-quarter results as it repairs tracks damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Shares of Expedia jumped 6.7% after the Financial Times reported that the ride-hailing app Uber had considered a takeover bid for travel booking site.

Taiwan Semiconductor jumped 9.6% after its third-quarter sales and profit beat analyst forecasts. The company also issued rosy fourth-quarter guidance, boosted by expected demand for artificial intelligence-related products.

Coming later Thursday morning are government reports on retail sales and layoffs. Retail sales are expected to rise for the third straight month, while layoffs are projected to come in higher again, suggesting the job market continues to soften from the pressure of elevated interest rates.

European stocks gained in anticipation that the European Central Bank will cut borrowing costs.

The rate-setting council of the ECB, which sets interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro currency, is expected to lower its benchmark rate from 3.5% to 3.25% after figures showed inflation across the bloc falling to its lowest level in more than three years and economic growth waning.

Germany's DAX gained 0.6% and the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.8%. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 8,367.96.

In Asian trading, Chinese markets fell back after officials in Beijing announced the government was expanding financing for housing projects to try to turn around a slump in the property market triggered by a crackdown on excessive borrowing by developers.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1% to 20,079.10, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.1% to 3,169.38.

China is due to announce its economic growth data for the April-September quarter on Friday. Economists are forecasting annual growth at about 4.5%, short of the government's target of about 5%.

China's leaders have promised more measures to help boost the economy, but so far have not provided details of stimulus on a scale that would satisfy investors hoping to see reforms that might address longer term problems such as massive local debt and weak consumer demand.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index lost 0.7% to 38,911.19 after the government reported Japan's exports fell 1.7% from a year earlier in September, widening the country's trade deficit.

South Korea's Kospi slipped less than 0.1% to 2,609.30 and in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9% to 8,355.90.

Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.2% and India's Sensex was down 0.6%. In Thailand, the SET gained 0.7% a day after the central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 2.25%.

The price of oil rose early Thursday. After surging recently it has fallen back as worries recede that Israel will attack Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation for Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere. Concerns about the strength of demand because of China’s flagging economic growth have also hit oil prices.

U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 7 cents at $70.46 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 8 cents to $74.30 per barrel.

The dollar fell to 149.55 Japanese yen from 149.64 yen. The euro rose to $1.0864 from $1.0862.

The New York Stock Exchange is shown on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A passerby moves past an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices outside a securities firm in Tokyo, on Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

FILE - People walk past Hong Kong's stock exchange building as the market closed with a massive fall of more than nine percent in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, on Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo, File)