Candidate spent $12 million and lost
Dem’s self-funded run set record
Wine distributor David Trone just made history, and he’s probably not happy about it.
The Democratic congressional candidate pumped more than $12.4 million of his fortune into his campaign for an open House seat in Maryland — the most ever from a self-funded House candidate. Despite the money and the nearly non-stop advertising it paid for, Trone lost Tuesday’s primary to a three-term state senator Jamie Raskin, who has been a champion of reducing the role of money in politics. Raskin raised about $2 million.
Trone paid about $393 per vote that he won, roughly 10 times what each winning vote cost Raskin.
Trone, who co-owns a multistate chain of Total Wine & More stores, joins a political graveyard filled with failed self-funders.
A quick tour: Wrestling magnate Linda McMahon spent more than $48 million in her unsuccessful bid for a Senate seat from Connecticut in 2012. A failed Senate candidate from Texas, former lieutenant governor David Dewhurst, spent nearly $20 million of his money that year, according to data compiled by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in federal elections.
They lag Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who spent more than $140 million of her fortune in the 2010 California governor’s race and lost to Democrat Jerry Brown.
For all the hand-wringing about campaign money, experts said raising money is a meaningful way for candidates to engage with potential supporters.
“People may say nice things, but you don’t have a sense of who’s really behind you,” said Viveca Novak of the Center for Responsive Politics. “Contributions are a sign of being really committed to a candidate. If you have to raise money, you also are out there campaigning differently.”
Trone’s campaign gained lots of attention — because of its proximity to Washington and the rise this year of another candidate who relies mostly on his own money, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
Their candidacies are very different. For starters, Trone, a political novice, entered the Maryland race at the last minute, joining an already competitive battle between Raskin and Kathleen Matthews, a former local TV anchor and wife of MSNBC host Chris Matthews. Trump walked into the presidential race a famous man and has dominated media coverage.
Trone donated all that money to his campaign outright. Most of Trump’s investment — $36 million through the end of March — came in the form of personal loans from the candidate, allowing him to potentially recoup the money with campaign fundraising. Nearly a quarter of Trump’s total receipts have come from other people, although he insists he’s not actively fundraising.