Trone's wealth looms over Maryland Senate primary

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Angela Alsobrooks is testing how far money can go in a Senate race.

“Ask yourself: Would you spend $47 million trying to fight somebody who you didn’t think was a formidable candidate?” the Democrat asked supporters at a get-out-the-vote event last week at a bar here, referencing what she says her opponent, Rep. David Trone, had already spent.

Backed by much of the party’s leadership in the state, Alsobrooks is hoping her supporters can counteract Trone’s seemingly omnipresent ads with early voting in the May 14 primary beginning Thursday.

They are vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, which wasn’t supposed to be competitive in November. But the surprise decision in February by Republican Larry Hogan, a two-term former governor, to run changed that. Now, Democrats hope his Senate campaign will follow the trajectory of other former governors who were unable to translate previous statewide success into seats in the Senate, like Montana’s Steve Bullock or Tennessee’s Phil Bredesen.

Republicans view Hogan as a top recruit this cycle. The National Republican Senatorial Committee launched a coordinated ad buy with his campaign last month. Early polls showed Hogan leading either Trone or Alsobrooks in a general election, but both Democrats say they are the better candidate to defeat him and that the state’s voters won’t vote for a Republican if it gives the party a chance to take control of the Senate.

“Marylanders know that a vote for Republican Larry Hogan is a vote to turn the Senate over to MAGA Republicans so they can pass a national abortion ban and push forward Republicans’ extreme policies. That’s a disqualifying agenda for Maryland voters,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Amanda Sherman Baity said in a statement.

Democrats now effectively hold a 51-49 majority, but one of those seats in West Virginia is now rated Solid Republican by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales after Sen. Joe Manchin III’s decision not to run again. That makes every seat on the ballot potentially a majority maker.

Hogan, who is expected to win the Republican primary, will face either Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive who would be Maryland’s first Black woman in the Senate, or Trone, a three-term House member who co-founded Total Wine & More and has self-funded all his campaigns.

Trone is unapologetic about how he’s financing his run and argues that Democrats who didn’t expect Maryland to be part of the battleground this cycle should be happy to have him take care of the race.

“I obviously have more resources and Chuck Schumer’s got a tough map. And if anyone thinks he’s got a spare $50 million, they didn’t ask Chuck,” Trone said in an interview at a coffee shop in Silver Spring last week after meeting with representatives of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He ticked off states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where Senate Democrats are defending incumbents this year.

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