I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with friends and family.
On Thanksgiving, with friends and family, my wife, April, asked everyone to write down one thing we were thankful for in this last year. I wrote that I was thankful for you and for the many people who helped us during this past election.
The picture to the right was taken about a week after the election. We had driven down to visit our daughter in college. The change of scenery was good for us all.
The day before Thanksgiving I wrote to you about a significant, unexpected campaign expenditure, just days before the election. Keep reading for the details, but essentially, we now have $30,000 of campaign debt.
We have been so thankful for your partnership with us. At this point, I could really use your help. Would you please make an immediate donation of $10, $25, $50, $100, or more to Parrott for Congress to help us take care of this amount?
Late on Saturday night, after the Tuesday election, the AP called my race in favor of my opponent. I wanted to wait for every vote to be counted, so we carefully watched the opening of the mail-in ballots in each of the five counties during the week following the elections.
After many hours, and vast numbers of straight-Democrat ballots, it was clear that we would not win. A week after Election Day, I sent out a press release that indicated how thankful I was for the huge amount of grass roots support throughout the district, but that it had, "become clear that April McClain-Delaney will be elected to this Congressional seat. I wish Mrs. McClain-Delaney all the best as she executes her duties to serve the people of Maryland’s 6th Congressional District over the next two years.”
While the race did not go in our favor, I want to say that I am extremely thankful that President Trump won the election. I am thankful for the election of 53 Republican US Senators which gives us control of the Senate, and I am very thankful that the Republicans kept control of the US House.
Right now, the AP shows that the Republicans have 219, seats with 3 U.S. House races still undecided, where 218 seats are needed to have the majority. One of the reasons I ran for Congress was to try to increase our majority by flipping a seat from Democrat to Republican. With Republicans controlling the committees, we can get much more done to help the American People. It is going to be tough having a Congress that is so split, but thankfully, we did maintain the majority.
For my Congressional race, we were in a solid position to win. In fact, our internal and external polls showed us ahead as recently as three weeks out from the election. We developed a powerful ground game led by fantastic volunteers in all five counties.
The excitement on the ground was there. In addition to mailers and radio, we were able to spend more than $500,000 to air four, targeted, fantastic commercials. Thanks to fiscal discipline, over half of the funds raised went directly to airing these commercials.
So, what happened? In the last 2 weeks, my millionaire opponent figured out that I was ahead.
With two weeks left, she injected an additional $1 million of her own money into her campaign to air really horrific attack ads lying about me. In addition, Maryland’s Governor, Wes Moore, spent $200,000 in separate, slanderous attack ads directly against me, fearmongering to independent voters.
The Democrat polls were obviously showing what our polls were also showing - our campaign was in the lead. They knew they needed to seriously increase their spending on commercials in order to win. At this point, what my race needed was an injection of funds of about $1 million from a national group, like the National Republican Congressional Committee, to help us keep our lead.
We had worked with the NRCC all summer and fall, and they split the cost of two polls that showed we were in the lead. At each conversation, they set a goal for us, promising help if we attained the goal (financial or organizational). We met each goal that they set, then they would set a new goal. We reached out weekly to let them know that we were doing what they asked, but no help came…until very late.
Six days before Election Day, on the last day of early voting, after many mail-in ballots had already been turned in, the NRCC finally indicated that they would help financially. Six days before the election, they offered $50,000 to pay for airing a commercial for us… but only if we would match that same amount.
Knowing that our opponent had just placed advertisements of over $1 Million, we were so excited that the national Republicans were finally willing to help us financially! Our team created the hybrid ad that same day and committed to the $50,000 required match. That ad started running on Friday and continued to election day.
April is a retired CPA, and I am an engineer. We are practical people and were very careful with our finances during this campaign. Earlier that month, we had done a careful accounting and had already purchased as many advertisements as possible with all of the campaign funds remaining to us.
We wanted to win, and, fully understanding that we were being outspent by about $1.2 Million to $225,000 on commercials in just in the last two weeks, we agreed to spend more.
We are thankful for the help from the NRCC, and the commercial was fantastic, but as a result of this last hybrid commercial, we now have $30,000 of debt that we need to take care of right away. You have helped us so much. Could you please help us by making a donation of $10, $25, $50, $100, or more to Parrott for Congress today?
This story isn’t complete without thanking one national group, the House Freedom Fund, who came in with a $100,000 ad buy 1 week before election day. While that amount was half of what Governor Moore was spending against us, it was a huge boost in the final days of the campaign.
Had the NRCC invested in this race in a significant way, like they did in other races in other states, many of which they ended up losing, there is a good chance that we would have won this race and flipped the seat from Democrat to Republican.
For now, as I look back on the campaign, I am so thankful for all of the volunteers and donors who brought us to a place where we almost won this race. People from all over the district joined our campaign to mount a huge grassroots effort that was winning the race.
I am thankful for state and national leaders who strongly supported my campaign, like Maryland’s former Governor Ehrlich, Congressman Andy Harris, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Congressional members in the House Freedom Caucus, and many others.
I am thankful for my family who supported me all the way through this huge effort. Campaigns are hard on families, and I am so thankful for my three great kids and my gracious wife. Also, I am thankful to God for giving us this opportunity to work to make a difference in our country.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, while I ask for your continued help, I want to say thank you for all of your support to April, me, our family, and our country during this last campaign. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to talking with you soon.
