Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn defended the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 and dreamed of returning four years later as a congressman. Tuesday, that dream crumbled when Dunn lost out on the Democratic nomination for a House seat in Maryland.
In Tuesday’s primary, Maryland state Sen. Sarah Elfreth was projected to defeat over 20 Democratic rivals, including Dunn, vying for an open U.S. House seat. She is now on a glide path to the House of Representatives in the comfortably blue suburban Baltimore district come November.
Dunn shot into the national spotlight after defending the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 and brought media attention with him into an otherwise routine open seat primary. Though Dunn is not from the suburban Baltimore district he competed to represent, he raked in $3.75 million, largely from grassroots donors supportive of the Capitol cop-turned-congressional hopeful.
ADVERTISEMENT
His run for office as political newbie up against a slew of accomplished state legislators tested the salience of his Jan. 6-centric messaging in a Democratic primary. A victory Tuesday would have buttressed Democratic campaign operators’ suspicions that pro-democracy messaging will help animate reliable blue voters come November.
Though Dunn’s prominence and focus on the Capitol riot supercharged his congressional bid, he ultimately came up short.
Elfreth, the youngest woman to ever serve in the Maryland Senate, ran on a cookie-cutter Democratic platform, highlighting abortion access, gun safety, and economic growth on the campaign trail.
Elfreth differentiated herself from Dunn and a pool of experienced state legislators jockeying for the nomination just as the United Democracy Project—a super PAC affiliated with the powerful pro-Israel lobby—has poured over $4 million to boost her campaign since April.
Elfreth claimed she was surprised by UDP’s move. In an April interview with Maryland Matters, Elfreth said she was unaware of UDP’s plans to inject funds into the race on her behalf.
“I literally read about it when everybody else read about it,” she said.
In an April statement to HuffPost, a UDP spokesperson acknowledged Dunn’s “support for a strong US-Israel relationship” but suggested they had concerns about other anti-Israel candidates in the primary.
For his part, Dunn made an issue of UDP’s involvement, repeatedly hitting Elfreth for accepting “dark money” help.
With UDP propelling her over the finish line, Elfreth is now well-positioned to clinch the seat, as Maryland’s 3rd District has a 10-point Democratic lean according to the Cook Political Report.
The seat was left open by retiring Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), a nine-term congressman and leader on election transparency—a fact Dunn took pains to highlight.
