Updated July 17 at 9:45 a.m. to add contribution breakdowns for Trone, Alsobrooks and Jawando’s campaigns.
U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Potomac)—one of the wealthiest men in Congress—has pumped nearly $10 million of his personal fortune into an effort to win the Senate seat now held by Democrat Ben Cardin.
In the two months between Cardin’s May 1 announcement that he would not seek another term and the end of the second quarter of the year on June 30, Trone—co-owner of Total Wine & More, a nationwide chain of alcohol beverage retail outlets—funneled $9.725 million in personal funds into his campaign, according to disclosure reports filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. He previously had invested $150,000 on March 31, in quietly launching an exploratory effort amid widespread speculation that Cardin would not run again, for a total of $9.875 million from his own pocket.
As he faces off in a Democratic primary next May against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, Trone’s self-financing enabled him to mount a statewide media blitz shortly after announcing his Senate candidacy. The FEC reports show him spending nearly $4.73 million in the period from April 1 through June 30, with the largest chunk of that—more than $2.2 million—going for TV ads on cable systems around the state as well as on some Baltimore broadcast outlets.
Trone spent almost three times the $1.73 million that Alsobrooks—vying to become the state’s first Black senator as well as only the third Black woman senator in U.S. history—raised in outside contributions during the second quarter of the year. But her campaign has expressed confidence in what they feel is her fast start on the fundraising front, as Alsobrooks has picked up several key endorsements from prominent Maryland elected officials in recent weeks.
She spent about $392,000 during the second quarter, leaving her with more than $1.33 million in her campaign treasury as of June 30.
Jawando—who was a congressional and White House aide prior to running for elected office—raised about $526,000 since early May and spent a little more than $200,000. He, too, is vying to be the state’s first Black senator.
While regarded as the longshot of the three major contenders in the Democratic
Senate contest, Jawando—first elected to the County Council in 2018—has sought to step up his appeal to progressive voters after U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Takoma Park) announced a week ago that he would not enter the Senate race.
“There may be other candidates in this race who have more personal wealth and establishment support, but I am proud to be running as the only grassroots, true blue progressive,” Jawando, a Silver Spring resident, declared in a statement Saturday.
With former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan repeatedly expressing disinterest in the Senate race, the winner of the Democratic Senate primary is expected to go into next year’s general election campaign as a prohibitive favorite to succeed Cardin.
Prior to the Senate race, Trone, first elected to the House in 2018, had poured a cumulative $43.5 million in personal funds into his past campaigns for Congress. While the nearly $10 million he so far has put into the Senate race is technically a loan, such loans by wealthy candidates to their own campaigns are rarely repaid—and become de facto contributions.
Although virtually all of his Senate campaign has been self-financed, Trone did report about $108,000 in outside contributions.
“Trone continues his long tradition of refusing any contributions from [political action committees] or lobbyists, relying on his own resources and grassroots support in the wide-open race for Maryland’s Senate seat,” his campaign said in a statement issued Saturday.
But his longstanding claim of not taking PAC funds may be called into question by a separate report he filed with the FEC Saturday, in which he acknowledged that more than $84,000 of the individual contributions he received had been “bundled” by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC.
So-called bundling of individual donations long has been utilized by PACs in an effort to enhance their clout on Capitol Hill.
A detailed breakdown of Trone’s expenditures shows him paying approximately $2.06 million for air time for television ads in the two weeks after announcing his Senate candidacy in early May, with an additional $201,000 spent on the cost of producing those ads.
At the same time, the Trone campaign invested heavily in digital advertising, paying a total of nearly $768,000 to Washington-based Gambit Strategies for such services. Another $375,000 went to Silver Spring-based Liftoff Campaigns for online outreach, to cover such costs as list acquisition and text messaging. In addition, payments totaling $425,000 went to Pennsylvania-based AMS Communications for a direct mail campaign that sent multi-page, glossy fliers into an undetermined number of voter households.
Trone’s latest FEC filing also reported $104,000 in ”pre-candidacy Senate exploratory” expenses dating back to March 31, a month prior to Cardin announcing publicly that he would not run again. This money was directed to research by Trone’s long-time pollster, Washington-based Hickman Analytics; that firm was paid an additional $130,000 for services in the two months from Trone’s announcement of candidacy to the end of the reporting period on June 30.
Trone also reported payments totaling $60,000 in mid-April–three weeks prior to announcing his candidacy–to Washington-based Spiros Consulting, a firm that specializes in so-called opposition research. Such firms normally look into not only the potential weak points of opposing candidates, but also examine possible vulnerabilities of the candidate that hired the firm — for purposes of pre-empting attacks from opponents.
In contrast to Trone, Alsobrooks is relying nearly exclusively on outside contributors; her latest filing shows Alsobrooks, a career public official, donating just $500 in personal funds to the campaign.
There is a catch to the impressive haul of $1.73 million in outside donations she reported for the second quarter of a year: About 16% of that amount, approximately $272,000, cannot be used during the primary campaign, and can only be spent if Alsobrooks succeeds in winning the Democratic nomination next May and advancing to the general election.
Unlike the candidate, who under court rulings is unlimited in what he or she can spend in personal assets on a campaign, the maximum donation that an outside individual contributor is allowed to make is currently capped at $3,300 per election. However, nearly 60 individuals donating to the Alsobrooks campaign “maxed out” by contributing $6,600—with half of this amount roped off for possible use in the 2024 general election. (Locally, the donors who contributed the maximum included long-time Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Slavin, who has publicly endorsed Alsobrooks.)
Another 35 Alsobrooks contributors exceeded donations of $3,300 while stopping short of the full $6,600. For instance, two Montgomery County contributors–Dan Simons of Garrett Park, who heads the group that co-owns the Founding Farmers restaurants, and real estate developer Robert Eisinger of Potomac–each gave $5,000, with $1,700 of their respective donations designated for general election use.
As the chief executive of the state’s second largest county, a perusal of the 864-page report filed by Alsobrooks shows her Senate bid being fueled to a significant degree by those who do business in Prince George’s County and the adjacent Washington D.C. suburbs–particularly in real estate and construction.
Eisinger, the principal in Rockville-based Promark, was far from the only Montgomery County figure with real estate interests to donate to Alsobrooks. Her donor list included contributions from Annette Lerner, widow of long-time Montgomery County developer Ted Lerner, and their son, Mark, now principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team. Each gave $3,125, as did Robert Tanenbaum, an official of Rockville-based Lerner Enterprises.
Other Alsobrooks donors from the county’s real estate community included Robert Youngentab of Bethesda-based EYA, who gave the $3,300 per election maximum, and Robert Buchanan of Buchanan Partners in Bethesda, a past president of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation who contributed $500. Also on the Alsobrooks list: former County Councilmember Steve Silverman, now a lobbyist who helped to found the business advocacy group Empower Montgomery, who donated $1,000.
James Soltesz of Potomac, an engineer whose firm has been involved in a number of development projects in the county, appeared to hedge his bets: He donated $3,000 to Alsobrooks, while also showing up on Jawando’s donor list for $2,000.
Jawando, an alumnus of the Obama White House, reeled in several celebrity names – including fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg, who gave the $3,300 per election maximum, and actor Bradley Whitford, who played the deputy chief of staff in the fictional White House depicted in the TV series “The West Wing.” Whitford chipped in $500, while Jon Favreau – a former White House colleague of Jawando’s who served as Obama’s speech writer – maxed out at $6,600, as did 10 other Jawando donors.
Jawando faces a similar problem to Alsobrooks in terms of general election donations, although not to the same degree: About $47,000 of the $526,000 he reported raising cannot be utilized unless he reaches the general election. Including the general election funds, his campaign reported $314,000 in the bank as of the end of June.
Close to home, Jawando reported a $300 contribution from Montgomery County Board of Education President Karla Silvestre, and $250 from District 5 County Councilmember Kristin Mink, with whom Jawando has been frequently aligned on issues. The only other donation to the Senate race from current council members during the past quarter came from Dawn Luedtke of District 7, who contributed $250 to Alsobrooks.
Luedtke’s husband, Eric Luedtke, is a former House of Delegates majority leader who is now a high-ranking official in the administration of Gov. Wes Moore–to whom Alsobrooks delivered a key endorsement in 2022. If Moore returns the favor in the 2024 Senate race, it could give Alsobrooks a boost with the national fundraising network that helped power Moore to the governorship.