Rep. David Trone is serving his third term in the U.S. House representing the 6th District. He’s running for the Democratic nomination for Senate.
Read the full story: Trone and Alsobrooks on issues facing Maryland and the Senate
Listen to the full interview above. The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
John Domen: Explain to me what you think is the most notable policy difference between you and your opponent here in the primary.
David Trone: The biggest difference between myself and my opponent is that she takes special interest money from Exxon, who’s not helping us with the environment; from Pfizer, who’s not helping us get low drug prices; from Cigna, who’s not helping us on the mental health challenges. It’s that special interest money — that’s where the biggest difference is.
John Domen: You both want to replace Ben Cardin, who at this moment is the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. Do Palestinians or Israelis really want a two-state solution? If so, what do you think has prevented that from happening? And to what extent can the U.S. government maybe influence peace over there?
David Trone: Well, we’ve got to get a two-state solution. That’s the only possible route to go. We’ve also got to support our ally Israel and eliminate Hamas. I mean, we have to eliminate Hamas. At the same time, we’ve got to get to a cease-fire with the hostages released — that can’t happen too soon. I’m the co chairman of the Abraham Accords Caucus. And we need to begin to rebuild Gaza after that, and help give folks there a real chance to have a life.
John Domen: There’s been a huge wave of protests kind of all across the country because of that issue. It’s caused some division within your own party. There are some Democrats who are a lot more supportive of the Palestinian side of things vs. the Israeli and vice versa. So where do you sort of stand on these protests from the tone of what the demonstrators are saying to the tactics they’re using? And how should the leaders be responding to that?
David Trone: I’m a big believer in free speech. That’s really important, the right to protest. But at the same time, we can never allow the protests erupt into violence. And we cannot let the protests impede others from going about their education, going about their job — that cannot be tolerated.
John Domen: So looking ahead to the TikTok issue, it’s very popular app and social media platform used by younger generations. The parent company, though, highly influenced by the Chinese government. So do you think TikTok should be forced to be sold to a company that’s not overseen by an adversarial government or be forced to shut down?
David Trone: TikTok has to be sold to a group that is not part of the Chinese government. It allows them backdoor into anyone’s telephone. A phone that’s using TikTok, they get a backdoor look, so we absolutely need to sell it. And so otherwise, we have Chinese influence all over America.
John Domen: Maryland’s economy has been fairly flat statewide for the last few years. The revenue is not keeping up with the increase in government services. That’s caused a lot of budget cuts at the state level. So what can you do to help the state’s economy from Capitol Hill?
David Trone: We’re going to focus on things that we can really make job growth and as bringing home the dollars. I brought home last year, the sixth most dollars of any member in … the entire Democratic Party. That’s a big deal, fixing Boys and Girls Clubs, creating centers for addiction control, mental illness centers — really bringing change back and dollars back to our district. But we got to drive jobs in Maryland. That’s key, that we got to make Maryland more friendly to other states, other employers.
John Domen: We’ve all seen the polls that suggest that there’s a lot of people that are just sort of dissatisfied with the presidential candidates. And I think some of that is probably because of dissatisfaction with this idea that the system is not working for them — that whether it’s government, the economy, something is just not working for enough regular Americans. How do you feel about that sentiment?
David Trone: We need to put people over politics. And that’s why I support term limits, two terms in the Senate, six terms in a House; stop stockholder trading by members of Congress; stop members of Congress from becoming lobbyists; and have Supreme Court terms, 18-year terms, every president gets two appointees. We need to make big changes in politics if we want to get people taken care of it. We can’t let the same old politics by the same old career politicians continue.
John Domen: You’ve expressed a willingness to end the Senate filibuster. Do you worry know that if that happens, some slim GOP majorities would sort of use that precedent to pass laws that you’re against, like a national abortion ban or other progressive gains over the years, rulings and laws that have sort of provided people with more rights and freedom from discrimination, that that can be used to bring those back?
David Trone: We certainly need to eliminate the filibuster. But at the same time, we’ve got to work on bipartisanship. And I was ranked the fourth most bipartisan member of Congress last year. We passed 26 bills on mental health and addiction alone, plus Pell Grants for returning citizens to give them jobs. So we can get a lot of stuff done if we work bipartisan, and we can get the 60 votes. And we got 60 votes on every one of those 27 bills that we did,
John Domen: Why is it such a struggle to get 60 votes are so many other pieces of legislation, though?
David Trone: Because folks don’t take the time … I take the time to get to know the other side of the aisle. You just sit down with the other side and find common ground. We can find common ground on education; we can find it on criminal justice; we can certainly find it in mental health and addiction; we can find it on business issues. But you got to take the time. The average career politician spends 30 to 40% of their time raising money — they don’t take the time to get to know the other side of the aisle. And that’s what you have to do to get stuff done for America.
John Domen: And you don’t worry that some of those laws that you would be against would end up passing if there was a, you know, a 51-52 seat majority, like a national abortion ban or something like that, where
David Trone: Right now we’ve got to hold the Senate and holding the Senate’s the key. And I’m the only candidate that is going to beat Larry Hogan. I mean, my district is a Republican plus one district. So I’ve won in a Republican district. That means I won by 10. So 11% of the voters, all the Democrats plus independents, and Republicans voted with us to win a Republican district.
John Domen: That brings me to my last question here. You have argued throughout this campaign that it’s important that a Republican not win this Senate seat. The primary has gotten pretty negative. It’s my understanding from from talking to people with both campaigns that the internal polls show that this race has gotten really close here in the coming weeks. If Angela wins, how much are you willing to do to help her win in November?
David Trone: We’re gonna support the Democratic candidate as we move forward. But right now the polls look excellent. People are responding to our mission of people over politics; they’re responding to the fact that we’re not taking special interest money. And we have a record — a real record that nobody else has — for three terms in Congress of being on a mission. I don’t need this job. I’m here on a mission to get stuff done to make America a better place and education, addiction, mental health, criminal justice, medical research, you name it. Those are things we focus on, and they matter to people.
John Domen: But if she does win, you’re willing to help campaign for her through November?
David Trone: We’re absolutely going to support the Democratic nominee.
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