April McClain was born in Buhl, Idaho,[2] on May 28, 1964,[3][4] to father Thomas McClain, a potato farmer,[2] and mother Laurel McClain.[5] She graduated from Buhl High School in 1982. After accompanying her father on a business trip to Chicago and visiting Northwestern University, she would later attend the school on a scholarship, graduating in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in communications.[6][4] She is a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority[7] and the Northwestern Alumni Association and has returned to the university for volunteer work.[8] She later earned a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1989.[4] She and her husband, whom she met at the university, founded the Delaney Post-Graduate Residency Program to help graduate students enter private practice.[9]
While John was a member of Congress, McClain-Delaney served as the chair of the Congressional Club's First Lady Luncheon and was a co-chairwoman for the National Prayer Breakfast. She also played an "abnormally active" role in her husband's 2020 presidential campaign,[13] during which she criticized the role of social media in the Democratic primaries, saying that the platforms' focus on the divisive political climate limited Delaney's centrist message.[2]
McClain-Delaney significantly led her primary opponents in fundraising, accumulating over $2 million in campaign funds, with more than $1 million being self-funded from McClain-Delaney's personal wealth.[17] Opposing primary candidate Joe Vogel, who was described by Maryland Matters as a frontrunner in the race alongside McClain-Delaney,[18] criticized her use of private loans to fund the campaign, accusing her of "buy[ing] her way to victory." McClain-Delaney's campaign responded by accusing Vogel of being funded by "dark money" and running an "old, tired, negative campaign."[19]
McClain-Delaney prevailed in the May 14 primary election, earning 40.4 percent of the vote; Vogel followed in second with 26.3 percent. Her opponent for the November 5 general election was Republican Neil Parrott, a former state delegate who was making his third run for the seat.[20][21] The election for the 6th district was expected to be the most competitive in the state.[22] In the general election, McClain-Delaney highlighted her experience in the U.S. Department of Commerce and criticized Parrott's stances on abortion, antisemitism, and LGBTQ issues.[23] She also continued to self-fund her campaign in the general election, loaning her campaign an additional $1.225 million and outspending Parrott 4-to-1 as of October 2024.[24] On November 8, 2024, CNN declared McClain-Delaney the winner of the 6th district election, narrowly defeating Parrott.[25] She and Sarah Elfreth will be the first women to represent Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2016, when Donna Edwards retired to unsuccessfully run for the U.S. Senate.[26]
Tenure
Before the 119th Congress, McClain-Delaney unsuccessfully ran for freshman class president, losing to Arizona freshman U.S. Representative-elect Yassamin Ansari, who was elected 23–10.[27]
McClain-Delaney supports providing additional funding to "effective and accountable policing policies" and officer training, and encouraging community policing. She also supports increasing support for mental health facilities and violence prevention programs, which she says would address the root causes of crime.[4]
Education
McClain-Delaney supports the Blueprint for Maryland's Future,[29]universal pre-kindergarten, free community college, and expanding skills training programs in schools.[4] She also supports having the federal government work with state colleges to establish workforce development to bring down the cost of higher education, and working with students to fight against predatory student loans.[30]
McClain-Delaney supports strengthening NATO, promoting U.S. economic interests abroad, and leading on issues like climate change to counter foreign policy challenges from China, Russia, and the Middle East.[35] She supports providing aid to Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War.[33]
In October 2023, amid the Hamas-led attack on Israel earlier that month, McClain-Delaney expressed support for Israel and its right to defend itself, supported a letter calling on Egypt to create humanitarian zones in the Gaza Strip, and urged Congress to pass legislation providing additional humanitarian aid and assistance to Israeli missile defense systems. She also condemned anti-Israel rhetorics on college campuses and supported calls by New York Attorney General Letitia James for increased moderation on social media platforms to remove hate speech and propaganda associated with the Hamas attacks.[36] McClain-Delaney said she was sympathetic to the loss of civilian lives in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon,[33] but opposes calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war and conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel.[37] She also condemned pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses and called on university presidents, law enforcement, and political leaders to protect Jewish students attending schools with ongoing protests.[38]
During her 2024 congressional campaign, McClain-Delaney signed onto a Maryland Healthcare for All pledge to support legislation to extend Inflation Reduction Act-provided healthcare benefits beyond 2025[40] and supported providing additional assistance to people with healthcare subsidies.[33] She also supports allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices[34] and establishing a federal universal healthcare coverage program, but stopped short of calling for Medicare for All.[41]
Immigration
During her 2024 congressional campaign, McClain-Delaney supported the Bipartisan Border Security Bill negotiated by Senators James Lankford and Kyrsten Sinema and blamed former President Donald Trump for its failure to pass the Senate. She also supports streamlining the process to grant asylum and to supporting immigrants already living in the United States, and using new technologies to help secure the Mexico–United States border.[33]
Social issues
During John Delaney's 2020 presidential campaign, McClain-Delaney said that she would support updating communication legislation to protect kids' privacy.[2]
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