Maryland Democrats are choosing their U.S. House nominees in a handful of consequential and contentious primaries Tuesday, including a battle between a congresswoman and her predecessor and a crowded race to replace retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer.
And as rising party star Wes Moore seeks a second term as governor, Republican voters hope to return the state to GOP leadership by picking a candidate they think can unseat him.
Click to Gallery
Harry Dunn, former U.S. Capitol police officer and candidate for U.S. Congress greets a voter Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Upper Marlboro, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
Adrian Boafo, center, a Maryland state delegate and candidate for U.S. Congress smiles for a photograph, which included all of U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer's staff over the years, at the "AmeriPac Bull Roast" Friday, June 12, 2026, in Mitchellville, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
FILE - Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn speaks during the Ben Nelson Gala, Nov. 7, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)
FILE -Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speaks at a news conference about the Protect Our Probationary Employees Act on Capitol Hill, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Adrian Boafo, a Maryland state delegate and candidate for U.S. Congress walks into the crowd after being introduced by Congressman Steny Hoyer, left, at the "AmeriPac Bull Roast" Friday, June 12, 2026, in Mitchellville, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
FILE - Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland, speaks during the National Action Network (NAN) Convention in New York, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
The primaries in the left-leaning East Coast state have an outsize impact, in many cases determining who is likely to win in heavily partisan districts this fall. Seven of Maryland's eight congressional districts are represented by Democrats, and one by a Republican.
That dynamic and Hoyer’s departure have attracted big spending and some familiar names to the most-watched Democratic primaries.
Among them is Harry Dunn, a former police officer who defended the U.S. Capitol from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. He is running for Hoyer’s seat on a platform that includes protecting democracy.
Some races became proxy fights about how Democrats should behave in the current political climate. Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson faces a tough primary challenge for the first time in years from a progressive who criticized his decision to block a midcycle redistricting attempt.
The lead-up to Election Day has had some hiccups. Last month, the State Board of Elections had to resend mail-in ballots to some voters in the closed primary after a vendor error caused some to receive a ballot for the wrong party.
President Donald Trump seized on the issue, falsely claiming that Moore illegally sent the ballots to ensure victory for Democrats. The state administrator of elections derided him for spreading misinformation.
As the longest-serving House Democrat and the longtime party No. 2 in the chamber, Hoyer is nothing short of an institution.
His retirement gives Maryland voters a chance to reflect on that leadership — and decide whether they want more of the same or a change of pace.
Offering a degree of continuity is Adrian Boafo, a former Hoyer field director and campaign manager who was endorsed by the congressman, Moore and other prominent Democrats. The state delegate has drawn tech and cryptocurrency donations, and a major pro-Israel super PAC spent some $1 million to boost his campaign.
Others, such as Dunn and progressive attorney Wala Blegay, are proposing change. Both Dunn and Blegay, who are vocally pro-Palestinian, criticized Boafo for getting help from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC and other special interests.
The best-funded candidate in the race for the 5th District is Quincy Bareebe, a home healthcare CEO who funneled more than $3 million of her own money into the primary. Twenty-four Democratic candidates are on the ballot.
Rodrick Greensword, 58, and his wife Natasha Greensword, 45, both voted for Moore in the gubernatorial primary and Boafo to be the nominee to replace Hoyer.
“We know the governor is governed by the pillars on which his culture is built,” and he will work for the people, making moral and humane choices, Natasha Greensword said.
She said Boafo seemed to share the same values as Moore and Hoyer. She added that she thought Hoyer’s endorsement helped as well.
Former Democratic Rep. David Trone left his seat representing the sprawling 6th District in 2024. After an unsuccessful Senate bid, he wants it back.
The face-off between Trone and the current officeholder, Democratic Rep. April McClain Delaney, has been expensive and contentious. Trone, the wealthy founder of Total Wine & More, lent his campaign some $25 million of his own money, while McClain Delaney lent herself over $7 million.
Trone has criticized McClain Delaney on immigration. She was the only Maryland Democrat in Congress to vote for the Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia student whose killing became an anti-immigrant rallying cry for Republicans.
Maryland used to have a moderately conservative governor in Larry Hogan. In the years since he left office in 2023, Republicans have yet to find a clear successor.
In the GOP gubernatorial primary, nine candidates ranging from a Trump acolyte to a former Democrat are vying for the chance to stop Moore from being reelected.
Dan Cox, an attorney and former state delegate who unsuccessfully ran for governor four years ago, is one of the candidates who leans further right. Cox has a photo of himself with Trump on his law practice’s website, and he has pledged to slash taxes and beef up housing affordability programs if elected.
Jason Mangen, a lifelong Republican, said he was supporting Cox because he was concerned about the state's budget, which has struggled with shortfalls over the years.
“You look at the economy and hopefully get a governor who can guide the legislature and get a good budget," he said. "I think Dan Cox is good on the budget.”
On the other side of the spectrum is Ed Hale, a retired banking executive who owns the Baltimore Blast soccer team and switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party for this race. There are also various candidates in the political middle.
Associated Press reporter Gary Fields contributed from Bowie, Maryland. Swenson reported from New York.
Harry Dunn, former U.S. Capitol police officer and candidate for U.S. Congress greets a voter Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Upper Marlboro, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
Adrian Boafo, center, a Maryland state delegate and candidate for U.S. Congress smiles for a photograph, which included all of U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer's staff over the years, at the "AmeriPac Bull Roast" Friday, June 12, 2026, in Mitchellville, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
FILE - Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn speaks during the Ben Nelson Gala, Nov. 7, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)
FILE -Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speaks at a news conference about the Protect Our Probationary Employees Act on Capitol Hill, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Adrian Boafo, a Maryland state delegate and candidate for U.S. Congress walks into the crowd after being introduced by Congressman Steny Hoyer, left, at the "AmeriPac Bull Roast" Friday, June 12, 2026, in Mitchellville, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)
FILE - Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland, speaks during the National Action Network (NAN) Convention in New York, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
PARIS (AP) — France recorded its hottest day ever Tuesday as an early heat wave gripped Europe, prompting the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum to restrict visiting hours and disrupting school and transportation schedules in multiple countries.
Punishing temperatures extended to the United Kingdom and Spain, where weather agencies issued red alerts — like France — about the risks of extreme heat for tens of millions of people.
The record of 29.8 C (85.6 F) for France’s national thermal indicator — an average of temperatures measured at 30 weather stations — was only the latest in a series of never-before-registered highs heaped on Europe's largest country. The conditions were likely to persist at least until the weekend.
“Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year,” the Meteo France weather service said.
France's previous hottest days were recorded during heat waves of August 2003 and July 2019, with an average temperature of 29.4 C (84.9 F).
Temperature records also tumbled at individual weather stations and on consecutive days in some towns as daytime highs climbed well above 40 C (104 F), Meteo France said.
In the French capital, Gin Dujardin said the heat forced him to halt his work fixing roofs, which in Paris often have galvanized zinc coverings.
“It’s very, very hard because the zinc is very hot. The welds don’t hold,” he said. “It’s Dubai temperatures. It’s impossible.”
France has recorded 40 fatalities from drowning in the past week as people seek relief in rivers and other bodies of water, despite authorities' warnings about unsupervised swimming. Most of the drownings involved young people, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said.
Meteo France said the heat wave has reached what it described as a “plateau of severity,” with unrelenting heat, day and night. A growing number of regions will tip into the red again Wednesday as the heat spreads across more than half of the country, including the northernmost tip of France, the weather service said.
Human-caused climate change is tied to increasingly extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years are likely to shatter more heat records.
In a country without widespread air conditioning, schools, public transportation and sporting events have been affected. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower closed in the afternoon instead of late at night, as it usually does. The Louvre museum said it would close two hours earlier than normal from Wednesday through Saturday.
“Although parts of its historic building are naturally resilient, the museum remains vulnerable and is not sufficiently adapted to climate change,” Louvre officials said. “Heat buildup is greatest toward the end of the day and is further intensified by high visitor numbers.”
This heat wave, coming early in the summer, has already been compared to the August 2003 heat wave that roasted France with the highest temperatures in over half a century. It caused an estimated 15,000 deaths, many of them among older people in apartments and retirement homes without air conditioning.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Over the last four years, more than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes, and most of those deaths were preventable, the World Health Organization’s Europe office said this month.
The above-average temperatures can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke.
Hundreds of British schools planned to close or close early this week because of the heat, while many train services were reduced to avoid heat-related problems on the rail lines.
The Met Office, the U.K. weather agency, issued a heat warning for Wednesday and Thursday, with forecasts suggesting June’s all-time daily temperature record could be broken.
Temperatures of around 37 degrees C (98.6 F) are expected in southern England, with up to 35 C (95 F) in southeast Wales. The peak of the heat wave is now forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, when highs could reach 39 C (102.2 F) in London or southern England.
Conditions are expected to ease by Friday, the Met Office said.
On Tuesday, multiple U.K. train operators, including the express train serving London Gatwick Airport, said they were canceling or reducing services. Railway operators urged people to travel only if "absolutely necessary” on Wednesday and Thursday.
Further south, Spain faced a heat wave across parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain’s national weather service, Aemet, issued red alerts Tuesday for temperatures of 44 C (111 F) in southern Andalusia as well as warnings of thermometers hitting 40 C (104 F) in the normally temperate Cantabria and the Basque Country regions along the country's northern Atlantic coast.
Aemet meteorologist Rubén del Campo said Spain, which has experienced increasingly torrid summers, is only going to get hotter because of climate change as heat waves become more frequent, longer and occur outside the traditional window of July and August.
Of the dozen heat waves Aemet has recorded in June since it started tracking them in 1975, half have occurred since 2015, del Campo said.
Human-driven climate change is heating up the atmosphere, both above Spain and in the surrounding sea waters, he said.
Copernicus, the EU weather monitoring agency, found that in Europe and globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the continent experienced its second-highest number of “heat stress” days.
Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.
Associated Press journalists John Leicester in Paris, Sylvia Hui in London and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.
A drugstore sign shows the temperature of 41 degrees Celsius (105,8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
Parisians bath in the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Parisians bath in the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )
People swim in an outdoor swimming pool in London, Tuesday, June 23, 2026 as a heat wave is predicted across Britain.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Tourists use umbrellas to shelter from the sun as they visit the historical Spanish steps in Rome, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
A man drinks on Westminster Bridge in London, as a heat wave is predicted Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
A man keeps his legs dry as he cycles through standing water in London, as a heat wave is predicted Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
An African penguin cools off in a basin in Kronber zoo, near Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
A man keeps his legs dry as he cycles through standing water in London, as a heat wave is predicted Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
People cool off in a water spray at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
A family walks through a cooling water spray at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
A man shields himself from the sun with a scarf as he walks in the garden of the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, during a heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Tourists with an umbrella take a photo in Paris, as France is enduring a grueling heat wave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )
A drugstore sign shows the temperature 43 degrees Celsius (109,4 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rennes, western France, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
