OPINION | Millionaire’s Loss In Maryland Is A Win for Democracy
Trone’s rivals prove work and ideas -- not biggest bank account -- can get more votes
For the second time in eight years, millionaire businessman David Trone has poured tens of millions of dollars into a political campaign — only to lose to a much less funded rival in a Democratic primary.
And that is a big win for American democracy.
Trone — who with his brother founded Total Wine & More, the largest privately owned beer, wine, and spirits retailer in the United States —lost to an opponent in Maryland’s Democratic primary Tuesday to succeed retiring Democratic Sen Ben Cardin, after outspending opponent Angela Alsobrooks by about 10:1.
He’s been here before.
When Trone first jumped into elective politics in 2016, he similarly was running in the Democratic primary that year for an open seat in Congress from Maryland’s close-in suburbs of Washington DC.
Trone self-funded that campaign, which became the most expensive House race that year.
It was a very crowded Democratic field, as the congressional district tilts highly blue.
But despite using Trone self-financing to blanket the airwaves with biographical ads to burnish his image, a much less-wealthy state legislator and constitutional law professor beat the big-spending magnate and his other rivals in the primary, and went on to win the seat that November.
That Maryland legislator is named Jamie Raskin, who not only continues to represent the district but rise to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Why is this important? What’s so significant about Trone’s defeats at the hands of Jamie Raskin and Angela Alsobrooks?
Easy. It proves that the almighty dollar’s maybe not quite so almighty after all, when it comes to elections and politics.
The US government should never be a plutocracy, and elected positions should not go to the highest bidder.
And that Raskin and Alsobrooks beat Trone means that voters understand that too.
Raskin and Alsobrooks won — despite nearly being drowned by a tidal wave of Trone’s cash — because they got about the real business of democracy.
They won more endorsements from fellow political leaders and others, as well as newspapers like the Washington Post.
They met with civic groups and worked candidate forums.
But most importantly, they beat Trone and his bank account by just meeting and connecting with voters on the issues that mattered to them.
Alsobrooks now faces off against Maryland’s former governor, Republican Larry Hogan, on Election Day in November.
As long as candidates of relatively modest means — like Raskin and Alsobrooks — not only can run against, but beat, wealthy self-funders like Trone, the potential for real American democracy endures.
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