U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Potomac) fell short in his effort this year to become the state’s next U.S. senator–but he came close to setting a national record of sorts while trying.
Trone—multimillionaire co-owner of Total Wine & More, a nationwide chain of alcohol beverage retail outlets–reported funneling nearly $62.5 million of his personal fortune into a year-long unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic Senate nomination, according to disclosure reports filed late Monday with the Federal Election Commission.
While digging deep into his own pocket, Trone nonetheless fell about $1 million short of the record for a self-funded Senate race, which is held by Republican Rick Scott of Florida, who invested $63.57 million of his own money in initially winning a Senate seat in 2018.
It is worth noting, however, that Scott’s self-funding covered the general election as well as the primary, and that he was running in a state with more than three times the population–and a significantly larger number of expensive media markets–than Maryland.
According to polling, Trone’s level of spending, particularly for TV advertising, helped to boost him into the lead for the Democratic nomination against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks throughout much of the race for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Baltimore).
But Alsobrooks, who had the backing of much of the state’s Democratic Party establishment–including Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen—scored a come-from-behind 53%-43% victory in the May 14 primary. Alsobrooks now faces former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in November, in what has become one of the nation’s marquee Senate races as Democrats battle to hold on to their razor-thin Senate majority.
Alsobrooks’ primary victory came even though Trone appears to have spent more in the closing weeks of the primary campaign than Alsobrooks spent during the entire previous year.
The FEC reports filed Monday by Trone as well as Alsobrooks and Hogan cover the period from April 25, approximately three weeks prior to the primary, through June 30. It shows Trone spending $11.95 million during this period alone.
That’s more than the $8.73 million that Alsobrooks reported spending in more than a year between early May 2023–when she first announced her candidacy–through the end of June 2024.
More than half of what Trone spent in the closing weeks of the campaign—approximately $6.1 million–was for a final TV ad blitz, as both public and private polling indicated that Alsobrooks was closing the gap between them.
Trone began a sustained statewide TV ad campaign in early fall 2023, and never went off broadcast or cable television in the following eight months. Added to the $22 million that the Trone campaign reported spending on TV advertising between September 2023 and this past April, his paid TV ad spots alone totaled $28 million in the course of the campaign.
Although Trone collected about $850,000 in outside contributions from supporters, his own contributions accounted for 98.6% of the cost of running his campaign. For the 13 months of his Senate candidacy, he reported an eye-popping $63.59 million in total expenditures.
Trone directed another $8.35 million in personal assets into his campaign in the final three weeks, on top of more than $54 million he had previously poured in. Although this money is labeled as loans on the FEC report, such “loans” are rarely repaid–particularly in the case of losing campaigns–and generally became de facto donations on the part of the candidate.
For her part, Alsobrooks reported spending slightly more than $3 million during the period from April 25 through June 30–which covers the closing weeks of the primary campaign, in which she started running TV ads for the first time in the pricey Washington, D.C., broadcast market.
The latest FEC report shows Alsobrooks spending another $1.2 million on TV advertising, all of it in the weeks prior to the primary. On top of approximately $2.5 million in TV ad expenditures disclosed in prior FEC reports since the start of 2024, Alsobrooks’ overall TV ad budget of $3.7 million was less than 15% of the amount spent by the Trone campaign on this form of voter outreach.
During the period covered by the latest disclosure reports, Alsobrooks’s principal campaign committee, Alsobrooks for Senate, reported outside contributions of nearly $3.39 million–for a total of nearly $10 million in such donations over the course of the campaign.
However, on top of that, the Alsobrooks campaign reported transfers of $1.3 million from authorized committees during the most recent period, for a total of nearly $2.5 million in the course of the campaign. These transfers come largely from so-called joint fundraising committees–including several in which Alsobrooks has joined with other Democratic Senate campaigns around the country to share fundraising expenses and split the proceeds.
With Alsobrooks lacking the personal wealth of Trone to draw upon in the general election, there has been a ramping up of such joint fundraising efforts in recent weeks as she prepares to go head-to-head with Hogan—who is expected to receive heavy financial support from national Republicans.
Recent filings show creation of a new Alsobrooks joint fundraising committee involving Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who is facing a tough battle for re-election, along with another for Alsobrooks and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who is facing a competitive race for an open Senate seat in her home state.
During the primary, Alsobrooks benefited from another such joint fundraising effort–shared with Van Hollen, a Kensington resident who endorsed her campaign early on.
Between direct contributions to her principal campaign committee and proceeds from such joint fundraising efforts, Alsobrooks reported total receipts of $4.69 million during the most recent reporting period, and more than $12.47 million since she launched her campaign more than a year ago. Her campaign reported $3.56 million in the bank as of June 30, with a little more than four months to go until the November general election.
In a surprise, Hogan jumped into the Senate race in early February on the last day of the filing deadline. In a filing with the FEC Monday, his principal campaign committee–Hogan for Maryland–reported raising $3.93 million during the most recent period, with a total of $7 million raised since he announced his candidacy.
During the latest filing period, Hogan reported spending $3.05 million. This coincided with the time frame immediately following his easily winning the Republican nomination in the May 14 primary. In the aftermath of that victory, he aired a couple of TV ads statewide to appeal to Democratic voters in a state where the Democrats have a 2-1 registration edge.
Hogan reported spending about $1.7 million on TV advertising in the latest disclosure report, with the large majority of that purchased after his primary win as he pivoted to appealing to the general election audience.
Hogan won the seven-way Republican primary with 64%, with long-time political gadfly Robin Ficker of Boyds finishing second with 27%. Ficker, making his 22nd run for political office, reported in his latest FEC report that he had spent $2.09 million–virtually all of it his own money–in a campaign that included TV ads and glossy flyers in which he sought to tie himself to former President Donald Trump, of whom Hogan has been sharply critical.
All told, the Hogan campaign committee reported spending $4.34 million since he launched his candidacy, with $2.66 million remaining in its treasury as of June 30.
However, like Alsobrooks, Hogan is relying upon joint fundraising committees–notably, the Hogan Victory Fund, whose partners include the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the U.S. Senate Republican caucus.
Combining the results of that effort and his principal campaign committee, the Hogan campaign claimed in a press release late Monday that Hogan had raised an overall total of $9.7 million since announcing his candidacy.
And Hogan—who has been increasingly swiping at Alsobrooks in recent days–couldn’t resist taking a gibe Monday at Alsobrooks on the fundraising front.
“In the five-month period since Governor Hogan announced his candidacy for Senate in February to today, the campaign has already surpassed $10 million with a majority of these contributions coming from Maryland,” the Hogan campaign declared. “By comparison, the Alsobrooks campaign raised $7.7 million in the period from May 1, 2023, to April 24, 2024.”