• MD-Sen: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks' new ad campaign features an all-star cast of state Democrats assembled together to offer their support in the May 14 primary to succeed retiring Sen. Ben Cardin.
Alsobrooks' message begins with testimonials from Gov. Wes Moore and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who holds Maryland's other seat. Viewers in the Baltimore and Washington media markets are each then presented with a different collection of local elected officials. (Each market is home to almost half of the state's residents.)
The former version features Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, who is the frontrunner in the primary for the open 2nd District in the Baltimore suburbs, as well as Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who represents most of the city. Viewers in the Washington suburbs, meanwhile, hear from Reps. Steny Hoyer and Glenn Ivey.
Both versions go on to showcase Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is one of the most prominent progressives in the state, and state Comptroller Brooke Lierman. The audience then sees Alsobrooks standing outside before many rows of backers, who include Rep. John Sarbanes and other local officials. The crowd concludes the commercial by cheering in unison.
Alsobrooks' main intra-party foe, Rep. David Trone, has considerably fewer Maryland politicians on his side, though he hasn't been shy about featuring his supporters in his own ads. A new spot showcases Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, who is retiring from the seat Olszewski is seeking, while a previous message starred state Attorney General Anthony Brown. (Cardin is the one member of the state's Democratic delegation who has not taken sides in the race for his seat.)
Alsobrook is hoping that her superior institutional support will help her overcome a huge advertising disadvantage against Trone, a self-funder who began airing TV spots a full year before the primary.
New data from AdImpact underscores just how big this particular gap has grown. The firm says that Trone has spent or booked $38 million worth of commercials, compared to just $2.6 million for Alsobrooks. There hasn't been any major outside spending yet that might balance the scales, and it remains to be seen if that will change with less than three weeks to go.
• Utah: Multiple Utah candidates running for either Congress or governor need a strong performance when Republicans gather for their state convention on Saturday—and those who fall short will see their campaigns come to an immediate end, well before the June 25 primary.
That's because, as we've written before, hopefuls can advance either by turning in the requisite number of signatures or by taking at least 40% of the vote when party delegates gather, but the first option is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming for many contenders.
Even candidates who have already qualified for the ballot, though, almost always still take part in the convention, and there's no indication that any big names are skipping out this year. Democrats will also hold a parallel convention on Saturday, but there's considerably less competition for most races in dark-red Utah.
The main event at the GOP conclave will likely concern the race to replace retiring Sen. Mitt Romney. At least six candidates, including Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs and conservative activist Carolyn Phippen, are relying on delegates to keep their campaigns going. Staggs and Phippen, who are campaigning as hardliners, have reason for hope, though, as delegates tend to be more right-wing than the primary electorate.
A seventh candidate, attorney Brent Orrin Hatch, may also need the party's stamp of approval to keep his campaign going. While Hatch, who is the son of the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, turned in signatures ahead of the April 13 deadline, he may not find out whether he turned in enough before delegates assemble.
Hatch himself acknowledged to the Deseret News weeks ago that the task was "daunting" and his status was "up in the air." While Senate candidates need 28,000 valid petitions to make the ballot through the signature route, election officials had only verified about 19,400 of Hatch's petitions as of Thursday morning. It's not clear how many signatures they have left to sort through, but Hatch does not sound confident that there are enough to make up the difference.
The three candidates are guaranteed a spot on the ballot: Rep. John Curtis; former state House Speaker Brad Wilson; and one we hadn't previously mentioned, businessman Jason Walton, who is CEO of a pest control company. Walton, who has promoted himself as an ally of far-right Sen. Mike Lee, self-funded $2.5 million during the first quarter of 2024, which was about ten times as much as he raised from donors, and he ended March with $910,000 banked.
In the race for governor, incumbent Spencer Cox was the only one of the five Republican candidates who successfully pursued the signature route. State Rep. Phil Lyman initially planned to collect petitions, but he abandoned that effort in late March. The rest of the field consists of former state GOP chair Carson Jorgensen and two little-known contenders.
Lyman's far-right views may help him win over delegates, though his bid almost crashed to a halt this week because of a strict state campaign finance law. The Salt Lake Tribune's Bryan Schott writes that Lyman missed the state's Monday deadline to submit his latest financial disclosure forms and only turned them in with minutes left in the 24-hour grace period. Schott says that, if Lyman had failed to meet that second deadline, he would have been "disqualified from the race."
Those tardy reports revealed that Lyman took in a notable $800,000 since January thanks largely to a mysterious new company that appears to be connected to his family. He also benefitted from a loan from a former Texas congressional candidate named Johnny Slavens, who lost the 2016 GOP primary 75-11 against the late Rep. Sam Johnson but later returned to his home state of Utah.
Meanwhile, the GOP race to replace Curtis in the dark red 3rd Congressional District features nine candidates. The four who have submitted the requisite 7,000 signatures are Roosevelt Mayor Rod Bird, state Auditor John Dougall, businessman Case Lawrence, and former state party chair Stewart Peay.
Five more need to win over delegates, including perennial candidate Lucky Bovo, former Senate aide Kathryn Dahlin, former state Rep. Chris Herrod, state Sen. Mike Kennedy, and Utah Young Republicans chairman Zac Wilson.
There should be less drama surrounding the state's remaining House seats, where each of the three Republican incumbents is seeking reelection. The only one who decided not to qualify through the signature route is freshman Rep. Celeste Maloy in the 2nd District. Maloy is going up against Green Beret veteran Colby Jenkins and perennial candidate Ty Jensen, but it would be a huge shock if either of them kept her from advancing.
• OR-05: 314 Action Fund has announced a $500,000 digital and mail buy in support of state Rep. Janelle Bynum, which represents the first notable outside spending of the May 21 Democratic primary to face freshman GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Bynum, who has the support of Gov. Tina Kotek and national Democrats, is going up against 2022 nominee Jamie McLeod-Skinner.