U.S. Rep. David Trone of Potomac announced Wednesday that he received the endorsement of six more members of the Montgomery County state legislative delegation in his bid for the 2024 Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Baltimore).
The latest endorsements mean that Trone has the support of 10 members of the county’s 35-person delegation in Annapolis. It puts him slightly ahead of his chief rival for the Democratic Senate nomination, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, in that category: To date, Alsobrooks has picked up the backing of nine members of Montgomery County’s General Assembly delegation.
With Wednesday’s announcement. Trone has claimed 111 endorsements from current and former elected officials in Maryland and around the nation. Alsobrooks has accumulated 115 endorsements, according to her campaign website–including 104 current and former elected officials, and 11 organizational endorsements.
A majority of Trone’s endorsement list is comprised of 65 current and former members of Congress from outside of Maryland–including 39 announced Wednesday, on top of another 26 unveiled two months ago. In contrast, virtually all of Alsobrooks’ more than 100 individual endorsements come from within Maryland, underscoring her position as the favorite of the state party establishment in next year’s Senate race.
While Trone has yet to pick up any endorsements among his colleagues in the Maryland congressional delegation, Alsobrooks has won the backing of four of the eight Democrats in the delegation other than Trone: U.S. Sen. Christopher Van Hollen of Kensington, and Reps. Steny Hoyer of St. Mary’s County, Glenn Ivey of Prince George’s County and Kweisi Mfume of Baltimore city.
In the latest round of endorsements, Trone picked up the support of all four state legislators from District 15: state Sen. Brian Feldman of Potomac and Dels. Linda Foley of Potomac, David Fraser-Hidalgo of Boyds and Lily Qi of North Potomac. He also was endorsed by District 39 Dels. Lesley Lopez of Germantown and Greg Wims of Gaithersburg.
Members of the county’s Annapolis delegation who previously endorsed Trone include District 39 Sen. Nancy King of Montgomery Village, District 17 Del. Ryan Spiegel of Gaithersburg and District 9A Dels. Chao Wu and Natalie Ziegler, both Howard County residents whose district includes a portion of northern Montgomery County.
Among members of the Montgomery County state legislative delegation, Alsobrooks has won the backing of District 16 Sen. Ariana Kelly of Bethesda, District 18 Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher of Kensington, District 19 Sen. Ben Kramer of Derwood, District 20 Sen. Will Smith of Silver Spring, and District 9 Sen. Katie Fry-Hester, a Howard County resident whose district includes a portion of Montgomery County.
Also endorsing Alsobrooks are District 14 Dels. Anne Kaiser of Silver Spring and Pam Queen of Olney, along with District 19 Del. Charlotte Crutchfield of Silver Spring and District 20 Del. Jheanelle Wilkins of Silver Spring.
Another member of the Montgomery delegation, District 17 Del. Julie Palakovich Carr of Rockville, is backing the other high-profile contender in the Democratic Senate race: at-large County Councilmember Will Jawando of Silver Spring.
That leaves 15 Montgomery legislators–nearly half of the 35-member county delegation–still up for grabs with the May primary seven months away.
According to Jawando’s campaign, his candidacy has picked up 16 endorsements, including Palakovich Carr and his County Council colleague, District 5 Councilmember Kristin Mink of Silver Spring. Another County Councilmember, Dawn Luedtke of District 7, has endorsed Alsobrooks.
The remaining eight members of the Montgomery County Council have yet to make an endorsement in the Senate race. Trone, while not claiming the endorsement of any Montgomery County Councilmembers, picked up the support of four councilmembers in neighboring Frederick County this past summer – along with that of Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater.
With Wednesday’s endorsement by the six Montgomery County state legislators along with that of District 9 Sen. Katherine Klausmeier of Baltimore County, Trone has the backing of 15 current members of the Maryland General Assembly. That’s about one-quarter of the 60 members of the 188-person General Assembly who so far have lined up behind Alsobrooks, including 16 state senators and 44 members of the House of Delegates.
While Trone, with more than 60 endorsements from current and former congressional colleagues outside of Maryland, has a prohibitive lead in that category–including two colleagues, Colin Allred of Texas and Adam Schiff of California who also seeking Senate seats next year–Alsobrooks recently picked up a high-profile congressional endorsement from Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
Warnock is only the seventh Black senator elected since Reconstruction. Alsobrooks, if elected, would become the only the fourth Black woman in history to serve in the Senate.
Jawando, who, like Alsobrooks, would become Maryland’s first Black senator if elected, recently picked up a congressional endorsement from U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, with whom he served in the administration of President Barack Obama.