On Tuesday, the Total Wine and More co-owner David Trone, a Maryland congressman, lost the Democratic primary for Senate to Angela Alsobrooks, a county executive, despite pouring $61 million of his own money into the race. It was an eye-popping flop — and one that, it turns out, is not uncommon for political self-funders. I asked my colleague Minho Kim to tell us more.
More than 80 percent of candidates who outspent their opponents ended up winning their congressional races in 2022. That would have seemed like good news for Trone, who outspent Alsobrooks 9 to 1.
But a big spender’s odds plummet, it turns out, when they are big self-funders.
In the last election cycle in 2022, only six out of 44 candidates who were running in federal races and who spent more than $1 million out of their own pocket won, according to the campaign-finance research nonprofit OpenSecrets.
The list of candidates who had the initial advantage of deep pockets but lost includes Dr. Mehmet Oz, the TV personality who lost his Senate race to John Fetterman in 2022. There are also Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, and Mr. Trone himself from 2016, when he spent $12.7 million and lost a Democratic primary for the House.
Political scientists say the grueling work of fund-raising actually helps a candidate build their network and their base. When voters donate to races or attend events, they also become more likely to vouch for their preferred candidates to their friends and family. And it gives candidates practice testing out their message and speaking in front of a crowd.
“It’s one thing to sit in your living room and green-light television advertising — it’s another thing to wake up early in the morning, go out and meet the commuters,” said Bradley Honan, a Democratic pollster who worked for Hillary Clinton in 2008 and Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns.
Bloomberg’s campaigns for mayor were a successful example of self-funding, but Bloomberg seemed to unlearn any lessons he picked up from them. In 2020, he spent more than $1 billion on a presidential run in the Democratic primary, but he won only one contest — in American Samoa.
