McClain Delaney Releases New Ad: “Side By Side”
Exposing David Trone’s Reckless Alliance with Ron DeSantis to Rewrite the Constitution
Gaithersburg, MD — This week, April McClain Delaney’s campaign released a new television ad titled “Side By Side,” which highlights David Trone’s dangerous partnership with one of the most extreme right-wing politicians in America to trigger a constitutional convention. In a move that demonstrates reckless disregard for fundamental rights, Trone has spent months campaigning alongside his self-described “friend” Ron DeSantis to promote an Article V convention. Legal scholars warn this process has “no guardrails” to protect our democracy. A constitutional convention could even dispatch the 22nd amendment and pave the way for a third Trump term.
This alliance between Trone and Desantis was cemented in October 2025 when Trone and DeSantis officially joined together as co-chairs for a campaign aimed at triggering an Article V amendment-writing convention. Describing themselves as friends and colleagues from across the aisle, the two authored a New York Times op-ed explicitly calling for states to take matters into their own hands to bypass Congress. Trone has since made this his personal crusade and boasted on Fox News that the movement is nearly a third of the way toward the 34 states necessary to force a convention.
“David Trone is playing a high-stakes game with our basic freedoms just for a press opportunity” said Nick London, McClain Delaney Campaign Manager. “Teaming up with Ron DeSantis is a reckless dereliction of duty that risks our rights to privacy, equality, and reproductive freedom. Whether it’s because Trone’s vast wealth makes him feel invincible to the very real consequences of his actions, or even if it’s simply sheer incompetence, Marylanders deserve a representative who understands that the Constitution is not a political playground.”
Partnering with Ron Desantis is bad enough, but Trone now also finds himself aligned with far-right organizations that seek to completely undo centuries of progress. The Heritage Foundation, the primary force driving the radical Project 2025 agenda, has officially endorsed the call for an Article V convention in its report, “Reconsidering the Wisdom of an Article V Convention of the States”.
Heritage and its allies see a convention as an opportunity to enact radical changes that would never pass through Congress, such as permanently banning abortion rights, dismantling civil rights laws, limiting LGBTQ rights, and erasing federal environmental protections. Legal experts and civil rights organizations warn that once a convention is triggered, there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent it from being expanded to issues not originally raised by state legislatures.
This is not a novel issue: across the political spectrum, the legal community has raised this alarm for decades, but David Trone still decided to lead this reckless proposal.
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger: “There is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda.”
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: “I certainly would not want a constitutional convention. Whoa! Who knows what would come out of it?”
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe: “What you’re doing is putting the whole Constitution up for grabs.”
Trone’s partnership with DeSantis is part of a broader pattern of supporting the very MAGA politicians and causes he claims to stand up against. Trone and his corporate entities have funneled nearly $800,000 to Republican candidates and committees. This includes nearly $50,000 to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who redrew Texas’ congressional maps to favor Republicans at the behest of Donald Trump. Trone also personally gave $11,000 to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently running for U.S. senate on a platform of complete loyalty to Donald Trump.
By doling out checks to far-right politicians and lending his support to MAGA acolytes who are working to rewrite the constitution, David Trone has proven he is willing to risk everything for a few extra TV appearances. Marylanders deserve far better.
The new ad, “Side By Side,” can be viewed here.
Transcript:
Here’s Governor Ron Desantis with his friend David Trone.
Trone has joined with Desantis calling for a constitutional convention empowering the radical right to put anti-choice anti-LGBTQ amendments into the constitution.
Trone and his company have donated nearly $800,000 to Republicans including MAGA right-wingers.
Trone, Desantis and MAGA. He’s out for himself.
