Morning Digest: A major endorsement could shake up Maryland's Senate primary

The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.

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Leading Off

● MD-Sen: Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who trails Rep. David Trone in the polls, is hoping that a new endorsement from the Washington Post will help her turn her fortunes around with a month to go before Maryland's primaries.

In a Thursday editorial backing her for the Democratic nod, the Post praised Alsobrooks' record in office and noted she "would bring valuable diversity to the Senate" as "the first Black woman elected statewide in Maryland."

While it's rare these days for newspaper endorsements to have an impact at the ballot box, the Post's could be the exception. As Inside Elections’ Jacob Rubashkin alludes, the paper remains influential in Montgomery County, which is the state's largest and borders Washington, D.C., just opposite Prince George's.

Notably, Trone's House district includes part of Montgomery, so the Post's support could help Alsobrooks make inroads in the county, where she's likely less well-known. The paper’s decision to favor Alsobrooks also cuts against past practice: When there's been a credible Montgomery-based candidate in competitive Democratic primaries in past statewide races, the Post has typically gone with just a such choice.

That includes Tom Perez, who finished a close second in the 2022 primary for governor, and Chris Van Hollen, who won the 2016 race for Maryland's other Senate seat; both carried Montgomery County in their primaries. In the 2018 governor's race, meanwhile, the top Montgomery candidate, state Sen. Richard Madaleno, took just 6% in the primary. The Post that year went for Alsobrooks' predecessor, Rushern Baker, who lost to Ben Jealous 40-29 statewide but held Jealous to a tighter 36-32 win in Montgomery.

Analyst James Newton further highlights an older primary where the Post's endorsement might have been the difference-maker: the 2006 Democratic showdown for the very same seat that Alsobrooks and Trone are now seeking. That race featured a matchup between Rep. Ben Cardin and former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, whose districts were both based in the Baltimore area rather than the populous D.C. suburbs.

But with the Post in his corner, Cardin carried Montgomery County and narrowly beat Mfume for the nod by a 44-41 margin before winning in November. (Carding announced his retirement last year.) Alsobrooks may not have designs on winning Montgomery outright, but her goal will at least be to prevent Trone from running up the score there, and the Post's endorsement could help.

Separately, a group called Fight Corporate Monopolies has launched a new ad campaign targeting Trone, which HuffPost's Daniel Marans says is backed by a buy "in the high five digits" and will air on streaming platforms. Its new spot slams Trone both for his business practices and his alleged abusive behavior toward a delivery worker at an Arizona outlet of Total Wine, the giant alcohol retail chain he founded.

A narrator first attacks Trone as an unethical monopolist, claiming his company was "sued by President Joe Biden's Administration for illegally crushing competition from small businesses." Last year, the Federal Trade Commission filed a petition in federal court demanding that Total Wine comply with subpoenas regarding an antitrust investigation.

The ad then references a 2021 incident first reported last year by the conservative British magazine The Spectator in which Trone, according to a police report, allegedly told the worker, "I will fucking end you" and "I will execute you," purportedly because the worker had stacked his deliveries on the store's floor.

Trone does not appear to have been charged in the incident, and in a statement to Marans, his campaign says he "never made the statement" the ad describes. Marans adds, though, that the candidate's staff "did not respond to questions about Trone’s views on antitrust policy."

But while Alsobrooks has reason to welcome the new support, Fight Corporate Monopolies' outlay is dwarfed by Trone's massive spending.

As analyst Rob Pyers points out, Trone has now spent almost $42 million of his own money on his campaign, which Rubashkin observes smashes the previous record for self-funding in a Senate primary, the $30 million spent by Democrat Blair Hull in Illinois in 2004. (Hull lost that primary to none other than Barack Obama, who spent just a seventh as much, though adjusted for inflation, Hull is still ahead of Trone.)

Senate

● NJ-Sen: A federal judge on Friday delayed Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez's corruption trial one week to May 13 after his defense team asked for more time to review evidence and witness statements. The trial is now set to commence three weeks ahead of the June 4 deadline for independent candidates to submit signatures, an option Menendez says he may pursue if he's acquitted.

● PA-Sen: While wealthy businessman Dave McCormick has repeatedly touted his humble origins growing up on his family's farm, the New York Times' Katie Glueck reports that he spent his formative years living in a mansion while his father served as president of what's now Bloomsburg University.

McCormick, a highly touted GOP recruit, told the Press Enterprise in 2011 that the president's official residence was a "big old house" that "had all sorts of trap doors and all sorts of history." But his framing had changed by the time of his failed 2022 Senate campaign, when he claimed that he had "started with nothing." He also characterized his parents as teachers without mentioning his father's prominent position.

McCormick, who faces no intra-party opposition in Tuesday's primary to take on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, did not respond to Glueck's inquiries and instead denounced the piece as full of "frivolous lies about my childhood" a day before it was published.

"Growing up, we lived on campus at Bloomsburg State College and my parents owned a farm ten minutes down the road," he tweeted. "My dad started his career teaching history, economics, & democracy at Punxsutawney High."

House

● KS-02: State Sen. Caryn Tyson tells the Topeka Capital-Journal's Jason Alatidd that she's interested in running to succeed Rep. Jake LaTurner, a fellow Republican who unexpectedly announced Thursday that he would retire after just two terms in the House.

Tyson campaigned for the previous version of this seat in 2018 to succeed another retiring incumbent, Lynn Jenkins, but she lost the busy primary 27-23 to Army veteran Steve Watkins. Most of the scandals surrounding Watkins only became public after he won the nomination, though, and while he just barely beat Democrat Paul Davis that fall, LaTurner trounced Watkins in the GOP primary the following cycle.

Meanwhile, an unnamed person close to former Attorney General Derek Schmidt tells Alatidd that the Republican "is aware of the interest regarding him in the 2nd District." The same source indicated that Schmidt, who lost a tight race to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly last cycle, isn't saying no, saying that the would-be candidate "firmly believes the 2nd District needs to continue with strong Republican leadership in 2024."

Alatidd also relays that Jeff Kahrs, who is LaTurner's district director, "is believed to be considering a run," though there's no word from him. Political science professor Bob Beatty additionally mentions state Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, whom Alatidd calls "a big name from the moderate wing of the party," as a possibility. (Vicki Schmidt and Derek Schmidt do not appear to be related.)

Attorney General Kris Kobach, however, made it clear he's not joining the fray, with a spokesperson saying Kobach "has no interest in running."

● MD-02: Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski just publicized endorsements from Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and SEIU Local 500, which is one of the more influential labor groups in the state, ahead of the May 14 Democratic primary.

● MD-03: Retired Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn received the backing of VoteVets on Thursday, while Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi endorsed him the following day. Both highlighted Dunn's service during the Jan. 6 riot while Pelosi, whose father and brother each served as mayor of Baltimore, also noted that she, like Dunn, is also a Maryland native. Dunn is competing in next month's busy primary for an open seat in the Baltimore suburbs.

Ad Roundup

• IN-Gov: Brad Chambers (R)
• FL-01: Matt Gaetz (R-inc)