GAITHERSBURG, Md. _ After waiting two years for another shot at Congress and enduring a recent cancer scare, a little voting delay outside of the state's 6th Congressional District he will represent wasn't a big deal to Democrat David Trone.
"Only through failure do we learn true empathy," he told his supporters gathered in a Gaithersburg hotel, a statement referring to such setbacks, including his loss two years ago in a primary in the nearby 8th District to Jamie Raskin. This time around, Trone defeated Republican Amie Hoeber to punch his ticket to Capitol Hill.
Despite an official closing time of 8 p.m. for voting, the Maryland Board of Elections put the kibosh on counties releasing the results for all races because some voters in Towson and Prince George's County were still in line and thus permitted to vote, which took some time to finish up.
That meant the state did not put the results online until after 10 p.m. Several hundred supporters waited patiently in a Gaithersburg hotel watching the national electoral results while munching on vegetable spring rolls and cheesecake drops along with three types of sliders.
When Trone finally spoke in the 10 o'clock hour after being introduced by the man he is going to replace in the House, Democrat John Delaney, he came into the ballroom to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "I Won't Back Down."
He talked about fighting for "progressive values," but Trone also touched on his three key themes: compassion, civility and competence. He added that "we have to stop throwing bombs at each other."
He talked about after announcing he was cancer free recently that like when his family had to declare bankruptcy when he was a kid after the family farm went under and they had to start over, he said he didn't see the cancer coming and again had to start over and readjust his campaign.
He also discussed how he was going to work for Republicans and Democrats from all parts of the district, pointing to his get-out-the-vote strategy starting in the district's western neck in Republican-friendly but sparsely populated Garrett County and slowly moved east and south into the more Democrat-friendly and populous Frederick and Montgomery counties.
