Why are Maryland Democrats coalescing behind Alsobrooks over Trone?

[Woody]

Haven't paid much attention to the race, but at first glance it's bizarre that a county executive (not even the most populous county in the state) has virtually the entire party and statewide officials backing her over a sitting congressman. Even Trone's colleagues in the delegation is backing Alsobrooks, with the exception of Ruppersberger, who is retiring anyway.

[RI]

Because he messed up the word "bugaboo" that one time

[Not Me, Us]

Probably because Trone sucks.

[Left Wing]

Always seems to happen when a more progressive candidate is in the lead, doesn’t it?

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

She picked up many of the endorsements before the Trone faux pas, so I don't think it's that. The party saw the opportunity to have a marginally more progressive Black woman in the seat who could serve for 30 years, rather than an older white man with fewer ties to the party machine. It makes sense, but I'm not sure it'll wind up working due to how well-prepared Trone was to campaign early.

[Beet]

Why would a more populous county not be more important than a less populous district? Our population is about 30% Black, but we've never had a Black Senator. Trone has donated $150,000 to Republicans and is only competitive because of his money. I don't trust him period.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Why would a more populous county not be more important than a less populous district? Our population is about 30% Black, but we've never had a Black Senator. Trone has donated $150,000 to Republicans and is only competitive because of his money. I don't trust him period.

I suspect PG County has a very disproportionate amount of influence in the Dem primary (relative to population). Which further helps Alsobrooks.

[Beet]

Why would a more populous county not be more important than a less populous district? Our population is about 30% Black, but we've never had a Black Senator. Trone has donated $150,000 to Republicans and is only competitive because of his money. I don't trust him period.

I suspect PG County has a very disproportionate amount of influence in the Dem primary (relative to population). Which further helps Alsobrooks.

Precisely. PG County cast 379k votes for Biden in 2020, while Trone only got 215k votes in the 6th district that year. Alsobrooks has gotten more votes than Trone in her last 2 elections.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Why would a more populous county not be more important than a less populous district? Our population is about 30% Black, but we've never had a Black Senator. Trone has donated $150,000 to Republicans and is only competitive because of his money. I don't trust him period.

I suspect PG County has a very disproportionate amount of influence in the Dem primary (relative to population). Which further helps Alsobrooks.

Precisely. PG County cast 379k votes for Biden in 2020, while Trone only got 215k votes in the 6th district that year. Alsobrooks has gotten more votes than Trone in her last 2 elections.

It is fair to assume that the lion's share of MD blacks are behind Alsobrooks?

[coloradocowboi]

Always seems to happen when a more progressive candidate is in the lead, doesn’t it?

It’s interesting to me that “progressive” is on the opposite track to “liberal.” The media couldn’t make it a dirty word so now instead everyone is saying “I’m the real progressive.”

At any rate, I wouldn’t say there is much difference between Trone and Alsobrooks on the issues. They are both center-left liberals. Perhaps the real issue is that David Trone is one of those all-knowing rich guys who every politician hates begging for money and Alsobrooks is a likable Black woman. They both will try to make it about progressivism but I don’t think either is particularly progressive if that word means what I think it does.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

Why would a more populous county not be more important than a less populous district? Our population is about 30% Black, but we've never had a Black Senator. Trone has donated $150,000 to Republicans and is only competitive because of his money. I don't trust him period.

It makes sense to not trust him. Prior to buying his house seat, Trone was a founding executive of Total Wine and More. I don't necessarily disagree with some of what they did because I thought some of the Maryland alcohol regulations were silly, but Total Wine and More was similar to Uber in challenging the taxi monopoly cartels.

It seems to be a truism that businesspeople who challenge laws by directly breaking them (you can think of drug gang leaders as well, who are clearly business people just because they're operating an illegal business) tend to be some of the worst people alive. Again, look at all the initial Uber executives.

Maybe I'm being unfair to David Trone in this because I don't know much about him as a person, but as part of the class of businesspeople who break laws in order to get them changed, I'm suspicious of those people as well.

[MargieCat]

You know how the GOP's strategy in competitive senate or gubernatorial races is to recruit some outsider businessman who has never served in public office and isn't very relatable?

Like Oz, McCormick, Hovde, Michels, Vance, Masters, Sheehy, etc...

Well, in some ways, that was David Trone. The only difference is that after his failed senate primary, he ran for House and got in and served three terms.

He just seems out of touch and not likable.

[wnwnwn]

Democrats know that the "first black Maryland democrat Senate candidate" headline will favor them overall. Also, it´s not like Trone was a better candidate.

Always seems to happen when a more progressive candidate is in the lead, doesn’t it?

It’s interesting to me that “progressive” is on the opposite track to “liberal.” The media couldn’t make it a dirty word so now instead everyone is saying “I’m the real progressive.”

At any rate, I wouldn’t say there is much difference between Trone and Alsobrooks on the issues. They are both center-left liberals. Perhaps the real issue is that David Trone is one of those all-knowing rich guys who every politician hates begging for money and Alsobrooks is a likable Black woman. They both will try to make it about progressivism but I don’t think either is particularly progressive if that word means what I think it does.

I think that the current idea of liberal (american definition) is either "delusional emotional bleeding heart SJW" to some conservatives, "elitist out of touch soclib econmod goodist who follow so called experts" to some moderates and "corporate soclib pinkwasher" to some leftists.

[Progressive Pessimist]

This kind of feels like what happened with Moore two years ago.

[Indy Texas]

He just seems out of touch and not likable.

To add to this, one of the big handicaps rich guys who can self-fund face is that while the need to fundraise obviously creates problems and conflicts of interest for most politicians, it can serve as a feedback mechanism that enables them to work on their messaging, improve relationships with others in the party and get better at coalition-building. People like Trone never do that because they don't need to. They just turn their money cannon on and try to spend whatever it takes to get over the finish line. It worked for Trone in 2018. It didn't work for him in 2016 and looks like it won't work this year either.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

He just seems out of touch and not likable.

To add to this, one of the big handicaps rich guys who can self-fund face is that while the need to fundraise obviously creates problems and conflicts of interest for most politicians, it can serve as a feedback mechanism that enables them to work on their messaging, improve relationships with others in the party and get better at coalition-building. People like Trone never do that because they don't need to. They just turn their money cannon on and try to spend whatever it takes to get over the finish line. It worked for Trone in 2018. It didn't work for him in 2016 and looks like it won't work this year either.

On a larger scale, we saw this with Bloomberg in 2020 as well. There was a period of a few weeks where you couldn't go 2 seconds without seeing his face. Didn't really work out, and it wouldn't have even if he jumped in earlier, because he likely wouldn't expand in votes much at all with that strategy. Though he would definitely be one of the closest to being able to overcome it with a big enough money cannon.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

We just have to wait but Trone has a narrow advantage

[henster]

The establishment always seem to rally against self funder candidates in both Dem & GOP primaries. They usually come out of nowhere and don't build any relationship with anyone. Plus they resent them not 'waiting their turn' and respecting the machine like most establishment pols do.