Editor’s note: This story, originally published April 16 at 10 a.m., was updated April 16 at 11:17 a.m. to add the results of an independent poll commissioned by The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore and released Tuesday. It was also updated April 17 at 1:30 p.m. to add more details about Trone’s spending.
U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Potomac)—who has repeatedly vowed to spend “what it takes” to win Maryland’s open Senate seat—continues to put his money where his mouth is, according to reports filed late Monday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Trone—co-owner of Total Wine & More, a nationwide chain of alcohol beverage retail outlets—pumped another $18.5 million in personal funds into his campaign during the first three months of this year, bringing the total amount of money for which he has reached into his own pocket to underwrite his Senate bid to more than $41.7 million.
During the same period, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks—Trone’s leading rival for the Democratic nomination for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Baltimore)—brought in $2.12 million in outside contributions. A large component of this was slightly more $850,000 from several joint fundraising efforts in which the Alsobrooks campaign is involved, including several with incumbent Democratic senators who have endorsed her.
However, Alsobrooks’ campaign expenditures of approximately $2 million for the first quarter of the year were dwarfed by the nearly $18.1 million spent by the Trone campaign during the same period.
Meanwhile, former Gov. Larry Hogan, who made a surprise entry into the race for the Republican nomination just prior to the February filing deadline, last week boasted in a press release of raising more than $3.1 million in less than two months via three separate fundraising entities associated with him.
While this claim was reiterated by a Hogan campaign spokesperson when the FEC reports were released Monday, Hogan’s actual campaign committee—Hogan for Maryland—reported taking in a lesser amount, about $1.9 million, during the first quarter of the year. The Hogan campaign committee reported about $1.51 million remained in its treasury as of March 31.
Nevertheless, the Hogan report underscored the effort that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is said to have exerted to woo Hogan into the contest—and to put the Maryland seat in play for the Republicans in the fight this year for control of the Senate, in which the Democrats now have a narrow majority.
In addition to McConnell, political action committees (PACs) associated with nearly 20 current Republican senators donated to Hogan, in addition to another $52,800 given to Hogan by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate Republican Caucus.
That is a small down payment on what is likely to be millions of dollars that the NRSC and the Senate Leadership Fund—a so-called super PAC closely associated with McConnell—are likely to spend in Maryland this fall if, as expected, Hogan emerges with the party’s nomination in the May 14 primary.
The discrepancy between the $3.1 million in fundraising claimed by Hogan and the $1.9 million reported by his personal campaign committee involves an entity called the Hogan Victory Fund, a so-called joint fundraising committee in which proceeds and expenses are shared among Hogan’s campaign committee and other political entities, including the NRSC and Maryland Republican State Committee.
Although the total of nearly $2.15 million raised by the Hogan Victory Fund is included in the total of $3.1 million that Hogan boasted of raising, a look at Monday’s filing by the Hogan campaign committee, Hogan for Maryland, lists transfers of just $906,000 from the Hogan Victory Fund in its receipts. This appears to reflect that, as is the case when joint fundraising committees are utilized, some of the fundraising proceeds from the Hogan Victory Fund were parceled out to the other committees that are part of the arrangement.
In the Democratic primary race, Trone has been airing a saturation statewide TV ad campaign since last fall, and it appears that about half his spending over the past quarter—approximately $9.23 million—went into TV ad buys, on top of about $6.7 million spent for this purpose during the final quarter of 2023.
The TV ad effort has boosted Trone’s name ID around the state and is widely credited for the lead he has held in many recent polls in the race for the nomination, including independent surveys as well as polling released by his own campaign. But the Alsobrooks campaign last week released an internal campaign poll showing her closing the gap to 3 points, 43%-40%, within the survey’s error margin.
However, the latest independent poll, commissioned by The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore and released Tuesday, shows Trone with a large lead over Alsobrooks. The survey was conducted by Annapolis-based OpinionWorks in advance of a televised Alsobrooks-Trone debate this Friday being sponsored by the Sun and University of Baltimore, and to be broadcast at 8 p.m. on Fox Channel 45 in Baltimore and WJLA Channel 7 in Washington.
Trone has not relied upon his massive TV buy alone to get his name and message out: More than $4.7 million, or approximately a quarter of what the Trone campaign spent during the first quarter of the year, was spent on outreach via digital media. Most of that, about $4.5 million, was paid to D.C.-based Gambit Strategies, with another $210,000 going to Liftoff Campaigns, located in Silver Spring.
The Trone campaign’s TV and digital efforts have been supplemented by a direct mail initiative that has sent more than a dozen large glossy mailers into at least some Democratic households in recent months.
Such mailers are usually targeted to so-called “super Democrats”; i.e. registered party members who faithfully turn out to vote in primaries every two years. It’s not clear how far the Trone campaign has extended the distribution of these mailers beyond this core group. But AMS Communications, a Philadelphia area direct mail firm, was paid just under $700,000 for its services during the first three months of 2024, according to Trone’s latest FEC filing.
The Alsobrooks campaign went on television in the Baltimore market in mid-February, but didn’t begin airing television ads in the pricier Washington market until this past week—after the period covered by the latest FEC reports. Overall, the Alsobrooks campaign has spent nearly $3.88 million since she announced her candidacy last May—less than 10% of the $41.88 million spent by Trone since he entered the contest the same month as Alsobrooks.
Trone has refused to accept contributions from political action committees (PACs) and lobbyists, and argued that that his reliance on his own assets has immunized him from the influence of wealthy interests, while freeing him to devote his full attention to the needs of his constituents rather than having to expend large amounts of time raising money.
But Alsobrooks—who has traveled out of state for fundraisers at locations ranging from Martha’s Vineyard on the east to San Francisco on the west since announcing her candidacy nearly a year ago—has stepped up her criticism of Trone’s massive level of campaign spending as the primary contest enters the homestretch.
“He’s a one-man super PAC: He doesn’t take money, he gives it,” she said during a Democratic Senate candidate forum in Silver Spring last month. “He gives it trying to buy an election here, over and over again.”
Alsobrooks reported having nearly $3.2 million in her campaign treasury as of March 31, as the primary race entered its final six weeks. But a problem for her is that more than $700,000 of this already appears to be funds that can’t be used unless she advances to the general election—because it comes from donors who have “maxed out.”
This involves individual donors who have contributed in excess of the $3,300 per election maximum allowed by law during previous fundraising periods—and whose funds over that amount, up to maximum of $6,600 per election cycle, consequently must be cordoned off for use in the general election. It was not immediately clear from Alsobrooks’ latest report—which runs more than 2,240 pages—how many additional donors gave more than the $3,300 maximum among those who contributed to the campaign during the first quarter of 2024.
The level of personal assets that Trone now has funneled into his campaign vaults him into fourth place on the all-time list of self-funding Senate candidates, according to Open Secrets, an independent non-profit organization that compiles on data on campaign spending. Trone was already in first place on the historical list of self-funded House candidates, reaching into his own pocket for $17.5 million when he was first elected to the House in 2018 from the western Maryland-based 6th District, which includes a portion of western Montgomery County.
In third place, just ahead of Trone, is Republican Linda McMahon, who spent $50 million of her own assets in a 2010 losing contest for a Connecticut Senate seat, only to do it again two years later—pouring $48.6 million in another unsuccessful campaign. McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, founded the broadcast and entertainment firm that includes World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
At his current pace of spending, it appears Trone could pass McMahon on the list by Primary Day, whether or not he ultimately makes it to the general election.
In this year’s Senate race, eight other Democrats are on the May 14 primary ballot with Trone and Alsobrooks, while Hogan has competition from six Republicans. Some are political novices, while others are perennial candidates—notably Robin Ficker of Boyds, currently running his 22nd race for elected office.
With midnight Monday the deadline for filing the latest quarterly reports with the FEC, most of these candidates had not filed—indicating that many of them had not met the threshold required for filing, which is triggered once a candidate raises or spends $5,000. The only report on the FEC website was filed by Moe Barakat, a Glen Echo resident who is managing director of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council. Barakat raised $1,117 and spent just $45 during the first quarter of the year.
