He filed his paperwork in Annapolis on Wed.
Frederick, Md (KM) The first Democrat has entered the 2018 race for the 6th District in Maryland. Andrew Duck made his announcement to a small crowd of supporters Wednesday night at the Carroll Creek Amphitheater. “It looks as though John Delaney is going to be running for Governor . It’s not a guaranteed thing, but probable. So I am anxious to step up and be the next person up for that seat,” he said.
The seat is held by fellow Democrat John Delaney, who is expected to run for Governor in 2018, although he has not made any announcement indicating that.
In his campaign, Duck says he would like to change Washington. “One of the problems that we have is we’ve got an electorate that has become so divided. Both sides just worry about energizing their base and they just fight with each other and we’re not getting anywhere that way,” he says.
Duck says it’s time for politicians to reach across the aisle in order to solve the nation’s problems, but that does not mean abandoning your principals. “You hold true to what you believe. And maybe you even fight about it. But when you get done, you need to put that aside. You need to compromise and come up with the best thing that everyone can agree on,” he says.
Speaking to his audience, Duck called for health care reform. He noted that he married young, and his wife gave birth prematurely to a child. In order to provide health care for his family, Duck says he had to join the US Army. “I believe that you shouldn’t have to put your life on the line to get health care for a sick child. And that is why I support Medicare for all. We have a Medicare program that is working for our senior population. We should expand that to cover all Americans.”
He also called for investigations into Russian meddling in the election of 2016. “We cannot afford to have our democracy threatened by Russian meddling. We need to have an independent investigation both from a Congressional investigation and from a legal investigation to get to the bottom of exactly what the Russians were doing, and how they interfered with our elections and who was helping them do it,” he said.
When he served in the Army, Duck said he started off as a Private and moved up to become a military intelligence officer. He says those skills will come in handy as a member of Congress. “I believe today more than ever before we need someone in Congress supervising counter-intelligence operations and knows how to deal with the Russians,” Duck says. When he was stationed in Bosnia, Duck says he worked on counter-intelligence with a Russian brigade nearby.
He also says it’s time to get serious about climate change. “We need to recognize that climate change is real. And we need the technology solutions to resolve that. I’ve been committed to doing that already. I’ll continue to be committed to insuring that that research occurs as a member of Congress,” he said.
Duck says he filed his paperwork in Annapolis on Wednesday morning to run in the 6th District. The only other candidate so far is George Gluck from Montgomery County, whose running as a member of the Green Party.
By Kevin McManus