As the first head-to-head encounter looms this weekend among the Democratic contenders for the Senate seat up for grabs in next May’s primary, audiences of Democratic activists have recently been treated to less restrained, more combative presentations by one of the leading aspirants: three-term U.S. Rep. David Trone of Potomac.
Trone’s personal fortune—he is co-owner of Total Wine & More, the country’s largest wine and spirits retailer – has made him a formidable challenger in a contest in which he has vowed to spend “what it takes” (likely $40 million or more, with at least $10 million to date) out of his own pocket. And several recent developments—such as the endorsement of the 75,000-member Maryland State Education Association, the influential teachers’ union—have put some wind in his political sails.
Nonetheless, Trone is arguably in the position of underdog as he faces off this weekend against his leading rival, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, whose bid to become the first Black U.S. senator in Maryland has garnered the support of virtually all of the state’s Democratic establishment—from Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Kensington, on down. (One exception is the current occupant of the seat in contention, Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Baltimore, who has indicated he doesn’t plan to endorse a successor.)
Given that political dynamic, it is little surprise that Trone—in advance of Sunday’s Democratic forum at Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg—is taking off the figurative gloves and seeking to sharpen distinctions between himself and Alsobrooks. (The forum, which begins at 2 p.m. and is sponsored by the Latino Democrats of Prince George’s County, also includes a long-shot contender, telecommunications executive Juan Dominguez of Anne Arundel County, making his first run for public office in Maryland.)
In an appearance earlier this month before the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Democratic Breakfast Club, Trone adopted a defiant tone tinged with an echo of populism, as he sought to delineate himself from the state party establishment that has rallied around Alsobrooks. “I’m not the candidate [of] each of the politicians that endorses each other. I don’t live in that world,” he declared.
“That’s the way the establishment is—they just keep themselves in power; they don’t bring in anybody as a disrupter. They don’t talk ill of each other, and you get what you get,” Trone told the group later asserting: “…I’m not an insider. I’m an outsider. I’m a disrupter.”
Representing a competitive congressional district since 2018 stretching from Montgomery County across western Maryland, Trone generally has been viewed more as part of his party’s centrist wing. Recent congressional vote ratings by a progressive-leaning website put him toward the ideological center of the House Democratic Caucus, and he is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of centrists within the caucus.
But Trone has increasingly doubled down on efforts to position himself to the left of Alsobrooks, in both glossy fliers mailed to primary voters and his recent rhetoric. “One thing I would argue is that, in this race, I am the progressive by far. It ain’t even close,” Trone told a recent gathering of the District 18 Democratic Breakfast Club in Silver Spring.
It’s a strategy rooted in the knowledge that progressive Democrats—particularly in Trone’s home base of Montgomery County—turn out in disproportionately high numbers in primaries, and that many of them appear up for grabs, following the decision by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Takoma Park to not run for the open Senate seat.
In his outreach to progressive voters, Trone has begun to highlight what he regards as policy differences with Alsobrooks, notwithstanding that his comments on the stump at times have been couched in oblique terms. This weekend’s head-to-head encounter between the two Senate frontrunners may yield opportunities to bring greater clarity to the candidates’ records on hot-button issues ranging from abortion rights to racial and gender diversity to criminal justice reform and use of the death penalty.
In the days leading up to the Sunday forum, we’ll take a detailed look at how Alsobrooks and Trone have positioned themselves so far in the race and on these controversial topics.
Part I: How the candidates are positioning themselves
Part II: Abortion
Part III: Criminal justice reform and the death penalty
Part IV: LGBTQ+ rights
Part V: Diversity
