MoveOn backs Alsobrooks, the start of a likely expensive race for funding

MoveOn.org is endorsing Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee for Senate, in her bid against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. File photo by Danielle E. Gaines.

The Maryland Senate race is already the third most expensive Senate race in the country — and it’s about to get more expensive.

MoveOn.org, a political action committee that supports progressive candidates, announced Wednesday that it will endorse Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Analysts said the interest from national groups reflects the fact that Maryland’s Senate race, once safe for Democrats, has been scrambled by the GOP nomination of former Gov. Larry Hogan, a two-term governor who was highly popular when he left office.

MoveOn conceded that in its announcement.

“We need to elect Alsobrooks to the Senate to keep the Supreme Court from going further to the far-right, to protect our freedoms and our democracy, and to stop a national abortion ban,” Britt Jacovich, a MoveOn spokesperson, said in a press release announcing the endorsement.

That was echoed by Alsobrooks.

“We know what’s at stake in Maryland — the Senate Majority. And we are committed to ensuring we defend our Democratic majority,” Alsobrooks said in the press release.

But an analyst with Inside Elections said the fact that MoveOn “is taking that plunge is a clear indicator that this is a race Democrats are taking seriously and understand” they will “need some financial firepower to help Alsobrooks.”

“I do think that we will absolutely see … other Democratic outside players get involved here,” said Jacob Rubashkin, the deputy editor of Inside Elections. “The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Majority PAC, which is the big Senate super PAC, I would anticipate that both of those committees will be heavily engaged.”

It comes in a race that is one of the most expensive in the country, according to OpenSecrets.org, in large part because of the tens of millions that Rep. David Trone (D-6th) spent in a losing primary bid against Alsobrooks. The Federal Election Commission reported that Trone had spent more than $51 million as of April 24, and he ultimately spent more than $60 million , according to the Washington Post.

Alsobrooks won some major national funders, like EMILYs List and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, for her pro-abortion stance during her primary faceoff with Trone. But MoveOn is among the first to come out for the general election.

“Maybe MoveOn is stepping in to sort of indirectly allow the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or Senate Majority PAC not to come in,” said Kyle Kondik, the director of communications at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

“The Senate map is basically all Democratic defense, so at the very least Democrats have an extra seat to defend and that’s the service that Hogan has provided to Republicans in the Senate, whether he wins or not,” Kondik said.

Patrick Gonzales, an experienced pollster and data analyst in Maryland, explained the rarity of a moment like this in the state where a Republican is a threat to a Senate seat.

“Typically Maryland would not even be in play. Maryland has not elected a Republican in the United States Senate since 1980,” Gonzales said. “The former governor, Larry Hogan, is a threat. And so they’re going to have to devote time and resources that they otherwise would probably put in another state.

“Democrats are probably not thrilled that they’re having to spend a little bit or a couple of slices of their pie in Maryland, where they’d rather go to a Pennsylvania,” Gonzales said.

The post MoveOn backs Alsobrooks, the start of a likely expensive race for funding appeared first on Maryland Matters .