Dan Cox on Maryland 6th Congressional District filing: It wasn't me

It's rare when there's a bizarre story in Maryland politics. It's even more rare when a campaign filing with the Federal Election Commission for the Maryland 6th Congressional District race can elicit hearty cheers of approval among both the Republican and Democratic bases. The story of former Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox supposedly filing Form 2 with the FEC in that race manages to score on both counts. After media outlets began reporting the filing, Cox took to social media to declare that he had not filed the form, and was reporting the imposter filing to the FEC for "fraud."

Many observers had mentioned Cox as a potential candidate once incumbent David Trone declared he would give up his seat to pursue Ben Cardin's seat in the U.S. Senate. The initial report of Cox actually filing likely thrilled GOP voters who are still strongly in the tank for Donald Trump, who endorsed Cox in his 2022 bid for Maryland governor. But for a Democratic Party that hasn't yet been able to secure a slam-dunk candidate for the 6th District race, in terms of name recognition or ability to finance an expensive campaign, the entry of Cox was likely seen as a boon. Democratic candidate Joe Vogel of Montgomery County's Twitter response echoing former Gov. Larry Hogan's Cox attack line, "QAnon Whack Job," summed up that sense of a candidate who could be quickly and negatively defined in a district that a Republican still can't win without some support from independent voters.

But Cox throwing water on the celebration before it could even really heat up has generated the biggest mystery in Maryland politics since Roy McGrath. If Cox didn't file the form, who did, and why? Cox has since implicated a Twitter bot account holder as the possible culprit, but he or she is yet to be identified.

One Republican who isn't disappointed Cox disavowed the FEC filing is Maryland Del. Neil Parrott. He lost to Trone in the 6th by 9 points in 2022. With Cox not on the primary ballot, and no one of Trone's moderate image and wealth on the Democratic side, Parrott has to be liking his chances this time around. And turnout among Republicans in the 6th in 2024 should be high.While many American voters have said they don't want to choose a president from a rematch between Trump and Joe Biden, they've made equally clear that they know which of the two they will support in such a rerun of a contest.

But for all the talk of filing, none of the names mentioned in this article so far even appear on the official Maryland Board of Elections candidate list for the 6th District race. As of this writing, there are five candidates listed: George Gluck (D) of Rockville, Stephen R. McDow II (D) of Monrovia, Chris Hyser (R) of Thurmont, Todd A. Puglisi (R) of Germantown and Mariela Roca (R) of Frederick.