Democrats have controlled Maryland’s meandering 6th Congressional District for almost a decade, and they’re likely to keep it that way next month.

But State Del. Neil Parrott, a Republican from Washington County, still sounds hopeful about beating Rep. David Trone, a freshman Democrat.

“Can a Republican win here? Absolutely and we’ve already seen it,” Parrott tells WAMU/DCist.

He’s referring to Republican Larry Hogan, who won a majority of the district’s voters in the 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial race. And another Republican challenger came within one percentage point of winning the House seat in 2014. But the last two House elections weren’t close.

It’s a tough district to cover for a challenger, wandering as it does from red counties in the state’s panhandle to parts of reliably blue Montgomery County — with more up-for-grabs Frederick County in between.

A District Divided

Republicans are at a particular disadvantage because in 2010 Democrats redrew district lines to favor themselves. Since then, the district has retained unresolved gerrymandering grievances and rural-urban geographical divisions between both parties for almost a decade.

“There’s quite a bit of friction there,” says Antonio Ugues, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Parrott recently campaigned in a housing development in Urbana, a purple part of the district in Frederick County.

He greeted Jenna Caruso as she sat outside her house watching her four kids play with the neighbors. Parrott approaches her without a mask and his campaign flyer at the ready. But Caruso represents rock-solid Democratic support for Trone.

“Once I saw who [the flyer] was for I gave him back his flyer,” she says after Parrott leaves. “All I know about [Parrott’s] platform is really that he’s a pro-Trumper, he’s against same-sex marriage, very conservative, and our family, those aren’t the values that we hold.”

Just a few steps away, Parrott runs into a supporter, Kirk Knight. Knight knows about the division in his district as one of the only Republicans in his family. He lost his older son four years ago to a drug overdose and began a foundation to raise awareness for drug addiction. He says he thinks Parrott has done a lot to bring awareness to that cause.

“Parrott is here, you know, to be able to make change. Restore the values of America that I think have been slipping away,” Knight said. “We need more red in this state that’s been historically blue.”

In addition to the political and geographical divide, Ugues says there’s also a “concern for the upcoming [2020] Census and the results of that and how that would be used to further disadvantage Republicans in the 6th District as well.”

Another disadvantage Parrott has is funding. As of the end of June, Trone had $2 million in campaign contributions in addition to investing heavily in his own campaign. Parrott had received less than $159,000, according to campaign finance records.

Who Is Parrott?

While the odds seem to be stacked against him, Parrott does have some name recognition and has honed connections with his Washington County constituents.

He’s been a conservative voice in the State House since 2011. He supports reducing regulations on firearms, promoting school choice, and requiring more identification from voters at polls.

However, Trone cites a 2019 Baltimore Sun article which rates Parrott as the least effective lawmaker in Annapolis for failing to pass any of the 16 bills he sponsored in the Democratically-controlled legislature

Parrott says he also helped Washington County get an exemption from state regulations, which he says enabled more residents to get off of government assistance and into the workforce.

He says he would bring that achievement to Congress.

“And as I look at Congress right now, you know, they passed a bill recently that gave people more money to stay at home than they were actually ever earning while they were working. And I just think that’s wrong,” he said referring to the stimulus checks and the extension of social security benefits provided to some eligible Americans during the economic recession caused by the pandemic.

Parrott says he approved of the way Trump handled the responses to the public health crisis.

“[Maryland] shut down the economy and caused really heartache, financial heartache for so many people across the state. And I just don’t think that had to happen. … I believe President Trump would have allowed us to be open, let people make their own decisions,” he says.

Trone criticizes Parrott for suing Hogan for declaring a state of emergency as the coronavirus spread.

“The governor is a businessman. He wants to get people back to work. We all want to get back to work. We all want to be alive tomorrow. Larry Hogan gets it,” Trone told WAMU/DCist. “My opponent is clueless in this area completely.”

Parrott says he’s campaigned for Hogan during both elections. But earlier this year, he and 18 other plaintiffs — including right-wing organizers from Reopen Maryland — filed a lawsuit against Hogan alleging that his stay-at-home order during the coronavirus was unconstitutional.

A federal judge rejected the lawsuit, ruling that the plaintiffs had not shown the harm they are facing is the result of constitutional violations. The plaintiffs are appealing the case.

This story originally appeared on wamu.org