I owe all that to my discerning voters
The Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate Primary for the 2024 election cycle is now in the history books, and it took several extra weeks for whatever reason to certify the results to make them official, which were finally posted as official on June 13.
And I came out in the top half, 5th out of 10candidates, with 3,635 votes, 56 votes ahead of candidate Scottie Griffin, 889 votes behind the 4th-place candidate Michael Cobb, Sr. and 1,053 votes behind 3rd-place candidate Joseph Perez. I came in 3rd in three counties—Frederick, Howard, and Carrol—4th in two counties—Montgomery (the state’s most populous county and my home) and Washington, 4th in the mail-in vote, and 5th or tied for 5th in five other counties. I did not come in dead-last in any county, but did tie for last in just one (I have organized all the county and state results into a spreadsheet you can access here, screenshotted below).
Thank you first and foremost to all my 3,635 voters, each and every one of you: I am deeply proud to have earned each and every one of your votes. Secondly, to anyone who seriously considered voting for me but did not, thank you so much for your time and energy considering me as a candidate. Perhaps if I was not such a longshot, many in the second group would have joined the first. But with almost no media coverage of the debates in which I participated and only one televised debate a few weeks before the end of the primary in which only two candidates participated, it was nearly impossible to introduce myself properly to large numbers of Maryland voters given my limitations. It is telling that in Frederick County—in which I received the most detailed coverage of any of my debates by Ceoli Jacoby writing for the Frederick News-Post—I came in 3rd (and 3rd in two neighboring counties): when people were actually exposed to me, my ideas, my policies, and my candidacy, I did a lot better, but there was so little coverage overall and none as detailed of me as that of the Frederick News-Post (apart from my own coverage). If more journalists had covered the debates and the primary in general with the seriousness and attention to detail of Jacoby and the Frederick News-Post, I am certain I would have done a lot better even if likely still would not have won.
Despite being at several major disadvantages which I will discuss below, I still beat out half the competition in a U.S. Senate primary!
I have only lived in Maryland since March 2020, whereas my competition seem mostly to be lifelong Marylanders with deep roots here, many community ties, years of public service or activism, and name recognition in at least some parts of the state that would dwarf mine.
I only raised $1,014.49, which means each vote of mine could be viewed as costing less than $0.28 per dollar raised. Other raised far more money than me or had personal wealth—or even a fortune—from which to draw. Other had actual campaign staff and merchandise, banners and T-shirts. I only had 10 signs towards the end of the campaign and one intern for a couple of events.
Others had influential Marylanders and other influential people and organizations hold fundraisers for them, endorse then, campaign for them. I did not, save for the endorsement of the Center for Freethought Equality, an atheist/Humanist national PAC, of which I was deeply grateful and appreciative (rockstar U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin was the only other Maryland candidate endorsed by the group!) and that accounted for nearly half my money raised.
And I beat 5 other candidates out of 10, some of whom enjoyed some of these advantages. I also earned the most media coverage by far of any candidate other than the two top candidates. So pound-for-pound, in some ways, I ran the most impressive campaign and very likely the most efficient.
Again, I am very proud of my campaign, to have beaten half the field and come in the top half with so few resources, and am very proud of all my voters, every single one!
But now I would like to say a few words about the some of the other candidates.
David Trone has been a solid Congressman for Maryland for approaching six years in the U.S. House, distinguishing himself in numerous ways. Maryland was lucky to have him and he fought hard, coming in far ahead of every other candidate save one. We should be grateful for his service and the results he produced for Maryland and the nation.
I would also like to give an honorable mention to Marcellus Crews, whose passion and friendliness came across every time we shared a debate stage, which was five times. It was nice getting to know him. I appreciated the other candidates I was able to meet, too, but myself, Crews, and Alsobrooks were the only candidates who attended all five of the debates I attended, more than any other candidates in the Democratic primary (except for Alsobrooks who would finish with seven debates attended), so I interacted with them the most.
Which brings me to my next point: the biggest appreciation I will express now is for the winner, our standard bearer, Prince George’s County Executive and hopefully our next U.S. Senator, Angela Alsobrooks. As noted, I also shared a debate stage with her five times, and while I will avoid repeating content from my fulsome endorsement of her that you can read here, what I will say is to ask all of you reading this and all of my voters and supporters to get behind Angela enthusiastically 100%. It’s got be all-hands-on-deck to defeat Larry Hogan and keep from having Trump’s Republican MAGA insurrectionist fascists gain another ally in the Senate, even if Hogan will not support them as much as a MAGA fascist insurrectionist candidate. We still 100% need Angela to win and empower Democrats in the Senate and she needs your support, volunteer time, and donations.
Be sure to support other Democrats running for other local offices in Maryland and wherever you are, too. And, while my campaign is now ending, you can still support my personally and professionally by following my reporting on my Real Context News website—recognized since 2020 as a leading voice in foreign policy analysis—and by donating to support my efforts there: as in my campaign, every dollar helps.
This will be my last post on my campaign site. I had so much more I wanted to post, including many more policies, but life gets in the way. Again, thanks so much for all of you being part of this journey with me. The survival of American democracy in the face of MAGA Trumpist insurrectionist fascism is at stake, so your engagement and participation are vital. You are the frontline for American democracy, so get to it, vote blue, vote Democratic, vote Angela this fall!