Clarified 12:50 p.m. | Usually, when you hear about a politician who came to Congress after growing his family’s very small business into a multibillion-dollar juggernaut, fighting regulators along the way, you probably assume he’s a Republican.
“Not a chance,” said David Trone, a proud Democrat representing Maryland’s 6th District. Trone made a fortune building a single beer distributor in Pennsylvania into 229 Total Wine & More locations, each the size of a supermarket.
Since coming to Congress in 2019, Trone has focused his energy on a nonpartisan issue near to his heart: fighting the opioid scourge. He co-chaired the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, which recently released its final report with calls for legislative action. “Every one of us knows someone who’s succumbed,” said Trone, whose nephew died of an overdose five years ago.
