The Maryland Senate race testing Democrats’ commitment to diversity

Nearly every major Democrat in Maryland is lining up behind Angela Alsobrooks’ attempt to make history, calling on voters to help the Prince George’s County executive become the state’s first senator of color.

Rep. David Trone, her primary opponent, has a very different pitch to voters — and to his own party: He’s rich, and he’s willing to spend his fortune.

Trone, a wine magnate, says he’s committed to pouring his wealth into a general election fight against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a popular Republican whose candidacy transformed the race overnight from a largely parochial affair into the most consequential Democratic Senate primary of the cycle.

“We'll be able to plow tens of millions of dollars into it to beat Larry Hogan,” Trone said. “Because we need every dollar we can have to win in Arizona, win in Ohio, win in Montana.”

With the contest two weeks away, Trone is explicitly making his bank account a selling point, testing whether it's more important for Democrats to diversify the overwhelmingly white and male Senate — or to have the resources to save their deeply endangered incumbents. But as the race has exploded in importance, and with polls showing it tightening, top national Democrats haven't weighed in with any endorsements.

A Trone victory would mean an unbroken string of white senators from a state where nearly one in three residents is Black, and raise questions about the stated values of a party that calls Black women its backbone.

“It is good for our country to have a diverse group of people in the Senate of every background, of every gender, of every race,” Alsobrooks said, “to see themselves in the center so that the policies will be more complete.” Trone’s view: “It's not how we look, it's what we get accomplished.”

But diversity and representation do matter, Alsobrooks’ supporters say — and should matter to Democrats who espouse those values.

That should bring party leaders off the sidelines, said Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat who just last month lost her own Senate primary to the better-funded Rep. Adam Schiff: “If you believe in diversity, if you believe that representation matters, then they should act accordingly.”

Senate Democrats face a tough cycle. But they weren’t supposed to have to worry about Maryland.

The jockeying for this Senate seat began before Democratic incumbent Ben Cardin even announced his retirement plans. Trone, Alsobrooks and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a well-liked incumbent representing the Washington suburbs, all weighed bids.

Raskin passed, setting up a two-way race between Trone, the founder of Total Wine & More who has represented Western Maryland since 2019, and Alsobrooks, the youngest person ever elected state’s attorney of her native Prince George’s County and the first woman to serve as its executive.

Alsobrooks is the clear favorite of the Maryland establishment — her most recent TV ads feature Gov. Wes Moore, Raskin, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Reps. Glenn Ivey, Steny Hoyer and Kweisi Mfume. Trone has support from House Democratic leadership, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and a large swath of his rank-and-file colleagues. But for most of the cycle, Senate Democratic strategists were paying little attention to the race in their backyard.

Joe Manchin’s retirement in West Virginia had essentially handed the GOP a guaranteed pickup. And Democrats have to defend Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana in states that Donald Trump won in 2020. Meanwhile, there are open seats in Michigan and Arizona, and incumbents to protect in Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

There was little reason to focus on a primary in a safe Democratic seat.

But with Hogan’s surprise launch just before the February filing deadline, a national map already stacked against the party became even more tenuous.

“This race is 100% a national race,” Trone said in an interview at a candidate forum in Baltimore. “Maryland is clearly secondary. We can't lose the U.S. Senate.”

Democratic operatives expect to beat Hogan, but they concede they’ll need to play some defense — and it’ll take resources to remind voters in the pricey Washington media market that their former governor who nourished a bipartisan reputation is really a Republican.

“It's going to cost a lot of money to prevail in that seat given who Republicans are going to nominate,” said Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who represents northern Virginia and backs Trone. And having a self-funder as the nominee, he said, would free up valuable national resources: “It means that we can move on to other, more vulnerable seats that need financial help.”

With control of the Senate on the line, every dollar matters

Trone’s aides approached him with a question after Hogan entered the race: How much would he be willing to spend in the general election?

They laid out possible financial scenarios for what it might take to beat the former governor. Trone’s personal investment, they said, might creep upwards of $50 million. He didn’t flinch, according to a person familiar with the conversation granted anonymity to discuss it.

“We’re going to spend whatever it takes,” Trone said later in an interview.

Though he’s noted that he doesn’t have unlimited money, Trone is firmly committing to putting up his own wealth. And he has a history of doing so: He injected more than $45 million into his campaign for his four congressional campaigns.

Hogan has been furiously fundraising, bringing in $3.1 million in the first 51 days of his campaign. And GOP megadonor Ken Griffin gave $10 million to a Maryland-focused super PAC that could help him further.

Alsobrooks has raised $7.1 million through the end of March. She describes her donations as “grassroots,” and suggested that Trone’s personal investment is corrosive to a democratic system.

“We've never seen this before,” she said in an interview. “Honestly, God knows I hope we never see it again. It's not what democracy should be like.”

Trone has already spent nearly $39 million on advertising, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. Alsobrooks has spent just $3.2 million.

“I understand that monetary argument that he's making, and, you know, that's not an insignificant argument,” said Raskin. “It's something that we have to take into account. Ultimately, I wanted to try to make a decision on the merits of what people would be doing in the Senate.”

Democrats say diversity and representation are key values. And Alsobrooks would make history.

Alsobrooks’ qualifications are about far more than just her identity.

She managed the second-largest county in the state during the pandemic, secured grants to build out the New Carrollton Metro and helped bring the coveted FBI headquarters to Greenbelt, Maryland.

But in a party primary with little ideological daylight between the candidates, Alsobrooks’ campaign has the potential to break new ground.

Only three Black women have ever served in the upper chamber, and there have never been two at once.

So Democrats began the cycle with high hopes when three Black women launched campaigns in open, deep-blue seats that they could hold for years.

One of them, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, has no real primary opposition in Delaware and is almost certainly headed for the Senate. But in California, Lee lost to Schiff, who used his massive war chest to shut her out of the general election.

“There's certain places where it's a lot more difficult for a Black woman to be successful statewide,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), a Congressional Black Caucus member who endorsed Alsobrooks. “Maryland presented an opportunity.”

Trone has leaned heavily on Black supporters. A recent ad features Black officials from Alsobrooks’s Prince George’s County questioning her effectiveness.

But some Black Democrats see him as a clumsy representative for a very diverse state.

Trone has downplayed the importance of race, saying “we ought to leave color behind.” He pointed out his plethora of donations to candidates of color, naming Reps. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) in a debate this month as among the “great diversity candidates” he’s supported. (His campaign said he meant to say “diverse candidates.”)

And last month, Trone apologized for using a racial slur in a budget hearing in which he said he had meant to use the word “bugaboo.” (He said he misspoke.)

“He's made some comments that he should be focusing on versus trying to compare his money to Angela's or if he thinks he has more experience,” said Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), a Congressional Black Caucus member who endorsed Alsobrooks. “He still has some work to do with some Black folks.”

Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.