MARYLAND MATTERS: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) raised $1.73 million in her first seven weeks as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
That’s according to a memo on the “State of the Maryland Senate Race” that her campaign manager, Dave Chase, began circulating to “interested parties” on Wednesday. Maryland Matters obtained a copy of the memo on Wednesday evening.
“Her qualifications, experience and profile combined with her popularity and strength in a key county, give her structural advantages in a statewide race that no other candidate enjoys,” the campaign argues in the memo.
Alsobrooks is one of several Democrats vying to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D), who announced in early May that he would not seek a fourth term next year. Her primary opponents include U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-6th), one of the wealthiest members of Congress, who is largely self-funding his race, and Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando (D). U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) is expected to announce whether he’ll become a candidate for Senate in a matter of days.
Campaign finance reports for candidates covering the second quarter of the year — April 1 to June 30 — are due to be filed with the Federal Election Commission on July 15, and the full picture of candidates’ fundraising and spending activities will come into focus then. But Chase’s memo shows the campaign is very happy with Alsobrooks’ fundraising efforts to date.
“Angela’s $1.73m opening quarter is more than any statewide candidate in Maryland has ever raised in their first quarter and she did so in just 7 weeks,” Chase wrote. “In fact, Angela’s opening 7 weeks is the largest fundraising number any statewide candidate has posted in a non-election year quarter. Angela’s first report also tops the opening fundraising quarters of a number of well-known national Senate races including now Senators Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff, Tammy Duckworth, Ben Ray Lujan, and Peter Welch as well as well-known candidates Cheri Beasley, Sara Gideon, and Theresa Greenfield. Pacing ahead of multiple candidates who went on to raise $40m+ demonstrates Angela’s fundraising prowess and solidifies that she will be well-funded in this race.”
The campaign said 76% of Alsobrooks’ contributions have come from Marylanders and that she has donors in all 24 of the state’s jurisdictions.
Chase was also dismissive of Trone’s millions, asserting that self-funders have not done well in recent high-profile statewide races.
“Angela is on-pace to raise a record amount for a Maryland Senate candidate and without a doubt enough resources to saturate her message statewide,” he wrote.
Still, Trone has already been running TV and digital ads across the state and is flooding Democratic voters’ mailboxes with slick brochures touting, among other things, his national liquor company’s commitment to hiring formerly incarcerated individuals and his financial support of the ACLU and its priorities. His spending in the upcoming FEC reports is likely to dwarf Alsobrooks’ and all the other candidates’ fundraising totals.
Thanks to his high national profile, Raskin is a fundraising powerhouse in his own right, who had more than $3 million in his campaign account as of March 31, and he has continued raising money steadily since then. Jawando is less of a proven entity on the fundraising front but he has a national political network through his work for the Obama administration and on Capitol Hill and his wife Michele Jawando’s stature as a well-connected national progressive policy advocate.
Chase’s memo also touted Alsobrooks’ “grassroots momentum,” outlining all of her activities across the state since becoming a Senate candidate. And it spotlighted her “impressive endorsements” from elected officials, now totaling almost 70, and suggested that of all the candidates, she has the strongest path to victory and is capable of building on the coalition Gov. Wes Moore used for his Democratic primary victory last year.
“Prince George’s County represents nearly 20% of the primary electorate, where Angela won 91% in her re-election campaign in a field of five,” Chase wrote. “Her popularity in Prince George’s — which is widely credited as decisive to helping Gov. Moore with his election — is a key structural advantage no candidate in the race can match. Additionally, with no candidates from the Baltimore region, a key swing area in this race, Angela has swiftly racked up notable endorsements showing a consolidation of Baltimore region leadership behind her candidacy.
“Broadly, the Maryland primary electorate is 61% women voters and 40% Black voters. With no women in the federal delegation and no Black women serving in the U.S. Senate, Maryland Democrats have the chance to elect a Senator who they can see themselves in with Angela Alsobrooks.
“Angela’s baseline path to victory is similar to Gov. Moore’s: winning outright in Prince George’s and winning pluralities in Baltimore City and County, Anne Arundel, and Charles. However, with her strength in Prince George’s, structural advantages in the electorate and other key counties, we view Gov. Moore’s vote share in the primary as the floor in all of these counties and expect to earn more votes across the board.”
While Alsobrooks, if elected, would make history as Maryland’s first Black senator and just the third Black woman to serve in the Senate, she is not the only Black woman running a high-profile campaign for Senate this year. Next door in Delaware, U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) is the early frontrunner in the race to replace retiring Sen. Tom Carper (D), while in California, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D) is one of three prominent congressional Democrats seeking the state’s vacant Senate seat.
Before the campaign finance reports are released, the next big development in the Senate race is Raskin’s highly-anticipated announcement of his political plans for 2024. Unlike Alsobrooks, who does not have to give up her job to run for Senate, Raskin would be gambling his leadership position in the House, where he is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and is in line to become the chair if Democrats retake the House majority soon.
A Raskin Senate bid would instantly create a multi-candidate scramble to replace him in the 8th District; Jawando would likely exit the Senate race at that point to run for the House seat instead.
Asked Tuesday as he marched in the Independence Day parade in his home town of Takoma Park, where he was the grand marshal, whether he was prepared to say what he plans to do, Raskin laughed.
“Politics can wait,” he said. “This is purely a day for patriotism.”
