Two Democratic congressional primaries in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. are racing toward record territory as among the costliest in U.S. history — and the candidates running in them are starting to question whether the torrent of outside cash is doing more harm than good. In Maryland's 5th district alone, outside groups had poured a collective $12.5 million into the race as of this week, according to Federal Election Commission filings, surpassing the $10.5 million spent by all the actual candidates combined as of June 3.
A Pro-Crypto Super PAC and AIPAC Are Driving the Imbalance
The dominant outside forces in Maryland's 5th district are Protect Progress, a pro-crypto super PAC, and the United Democracy Project, the independent expenditure arm of AIPAC. Together they account for the bulk of the $12.5 million in outside spending — and nearly all of it has benefited one candidate: state Del. Adrian Boafo, who is also backed by former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. Hoyer's AmeriPAC, the Congressional Black Caucus-aligned Rolling Sea Action Fund, and the American Bridge-affiliated Project 218 have each added six-figure sums on Boafo's behalf. Boafo's own campaign, by contrast, spent just $830,000 through June 3.
Candidates Say the Saturation Is Generating Backlash
The volume of advertising is beginning to register with voters in ways the spenders may not have anticipated. Prince George's County Council member Wala Blegay, who has spent under $90,000 on her own campaign, said voters "see the frequency of the ads, and now they're asking questions." Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn — endorsed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and one of the race's top individual fundraisers, having raised most of his $3.5 million in spending from grassroots donors — put it more bluntly: "It's tough to square, like, why is someone donating this much money?" Blegay noted that the saturation campaign carries an irony: "Almost none of the ads that people have seen on TV have said 'Adrian Boafo for Congress.' They're all ads from Protect Progress, United Democracy [Project]." More than 20 Democrats are competing in the primary to succeed Hoyer, who held the seat for decades.
Maryland's 6th District Features a Different Brand of Big Money
Across the D.C. suburbs in Maryland's 6th district, the dynamic is less about outside groups and more about personal wealth. David Trone, the founder of Total Wine & More who gave up the seat last cycle to mount a failed Senate run, has loaned his campaign a staggering $25 million in his bid to reclaim it. Rep. April McClain Delaney — whose husband John Delaney, a wealthy businessman, previously held the same seat — has loaned her campaign $7.4 million. Protect Progress has also entered this race late, spending more than $500,000 in McClain Delaney's favor. Both candidates are considered moderate, establishment-aligned Democrats, and their campaigns have largely focused on competing anti-Trump credentials rather than drawing any substantive ideological contrast. Progressive candidates, including former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official Alexis Goldstein, are also running but have raised comparatively negligible sums.
The Maryland races illustrate a structural reality of post-Citizens United campaign finance: outside money can now dwarf candidate spending in a single district, and the candidates being helped by it may have no practical recourse — or ability to control the message.