U.S. Rep. David Trone, the No. 6 Democrat, continues to pour millions of dollars into his Senate campaign.
Trone spent $13.7 million from Sept. 1 through the end of 2023, $13.5 million of which was out of his own pocket, according to his latest campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday night. Overall, Tron has 2,320 votes so far this election cycle, as he competes with Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks for the right to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D), who is retiring at the end of this legislative session. spending millions of dollars.
Tron's aggressive spending appears to be paying off. A poll released by his campaign on Wednesday shows him leading Mr. Alsobrooks 45% to 34% among potential voters in the May 14 Democratic primary. Among Democrats who said they would definitely vote, Tron led 46% to 33%.
In both models, 1% of those surveyed said they planned to support another candidate in the primary, while 21% were undecided.
Tron saturates Maryland's airwaves with ads, especially in the Baltimore media market, but Alsobrooks has yet to appear on TV. In a memo summarizing the poll, Tron's campaign acknowledged that the gap between the candidates is likely to narrow once Allbrooks starts running ads.
Still, Tron's camp has so far been content with the status quo. Campaign manager Dan Morocco said his candidate enjoys “a commanding lead based on support from across the state.”
“It's clear that voters are responding to David.” tron“This is America's message and vision of disrupting Washington and putting its people first,” he said in a statement. “As we enter the final three months of our campaign, we continue to build on this important momentum by expanding our organizing efforts and opening field offices across Maryland. , we will continue to communicate with voters across the state about the issues that matter most to families.”
The campaign poll, conducted by Hickman Analytics, was conducted among 1,500 likely Democratic primary voters between January 18 and January 24. He had a margin of error of 2.5 points on this survey.
Tron's campaign was quick to point out that polls predict that women will make up 62% of voters in the Democratic primary and black voters will make up 42% of voters, which is typically the case in both cases. This is a slightly higher number.
Tron's poll shows the candidate leading by a 2-to-1 margin in the entire Baltimore media market, including the city, and by a similar margin in Montgomery County, where he lives. . Tron's camp said Mr. Alsobrooks outperformed Prince George, but declined to give figures.
A separate Hickman Analytics poll conducted in late November found Tron leading 41% to 34%. So in the weeks that followed, Tron's numbers increased slightly, while Albrooks' numbers decreased, as he spent millions of dollars getting his name in front of voters through various media outlets. did not do it.
Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D); Photo: Daniel E. Gaines.
Alsobrooks continues to have stable funding. According to her latest campaign finance report, she raised $1,783,921.81 in the final quarter of 2023, bringing her total to more than $5 million since entering the Senate race in May. Allbrooks' campaign claimed that her total raised by a candidate in the fourth quarter from donors was the largest in Maryland history.
“We are truly grateful for the historic outpouring of support for our campaign,” Alsobrooks said in a statement released earlier this month. “This shows that our people-first message resonates with everyday people in Maryland. When you set a fundraising record like this, I think it's one person. You can see that it wasn’t accomplished.”
Allbrooks ended 2023 with $3,128,047.72 in the bank after spending $762,004.68 in the final quarter of the year.
Some of that money can only be used for the general election, not the primary. His maximum contribution in a federal primary is $3,300. Donors can give an additional $3,300 to candidates for the general election. Allbrooks has several contributors who exceed the $3,300 threshold available in the primary.
While Mr. Alsobrooks' fundraising is impressive, Mr. Tron's self-funding is otherworldly, and his latest campaign finance report reveals what his very deep-pocketed campaign can buy and how it works. It's a reminder of what you can do to get your message across and drive your campaign story.
Tron spent about $5.3 million on media buys in the last three months of 2023, according to campaign reports. He spent at least $3.1 million on digital advertising and nearly $1.1 million on direct mail during the same period. The campaign's polling firm, Hickman Analytics, was paid $266,355 in the last quarter of this year. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid to other consulting firms, including Adeo, the Baltimore-based firm of Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D). – Includes $30,000 in advocacy funding, with both companies supporting Oldsbrooks.
The largest single payment Allbrooks made in the last three months of 2023 was $51,000 to polling firm Hart Research.
Although they may be underfunded, the Alsobrooks camp has demonstrated incredible ability whenever Tron has promoted political developments. So on Wednesday, the same day Tron's camp announced its poll results in a big way, Alsobrooks received support from Sen. Cory Booker (D.N.J.) and Sen. LaFonza Butler (D-Calif.). was installed. bright video Featuring the three of them. Allbrooks was previously endorsed by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), meaning he now has the support of all three Black Democrats in the Senate.
Republican Senate candidate: Ficker drops more than $2 million
No matter who wins the primary, Democrats will have the advantage in securing Cardan's seat, but six Republicans are vying for the May primary. The early front-runners are John Teichert, a retired Air Force brigadier general, and Robin Ficker, who served in the House of Delegates from 1979 to 1983 and has sought political office nearly every two years since then. It seems that.
Teichert, a political novice, reported raising $304,340.85 since entering the race in the fall, including $5,508.74 of his own money. He spent $83,311.04 and finished 2023 with $221,029.81 in campaign funds.
Mr. Ficker sent out a news release this week boasting that he had more than $2.1 million in the bank and said he was “running the only viable campaign in this.” [GOP] Race. “
“I am grateful and humbled by the financial support we have received from across the great state of Maryland,” Ficker said in a statement. “My campaign is about restoring logic to government, and it's clear that Marylanders want to restore logic to the United States Senate.
“To win this race and bring Republicans to the Senate from Maryland, we need a candidate with the resources to compete with someone like David Trone. He has a message and is the only candidate who can get that message to voters and deliver the resources needed to turn Maryland red in 2024.”
What Ficker doesn't say is that he appears to have financed his campaign entirely out of his own pocket.
This story will be updated. Check back with Maryland Matters on Thursdays and Fridays for fundraising updates on House races.
Disclosure: The David and June Tron Family Foundation made gifts to Maryland Matters in 2017 and 2018.
