Six House Democrats are spurning their colleague Rep. David Trone (D., Md.), the frontrunner in Maryland’s Democratic Senate primary, after he used a racial slur to attack Republicans during a recent House hearing.
In the days after he used the slur, Trone's opponent in the Democratic primary, Prince George's County executive Angela Alsobrooks, received endorsements from Democratic representatives Barbara Lee (Calif.), Yvette Clarke (N.Y.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), and Jasmine Crockett (Texas), according to Axios. Lee described Alsobrooks’s voice as "sorely missing in the Senate," while Clarke said, "Her vision and integrity make her the best choice to represent Maryland in the Senate."
Alsobrooks on Monday won another endorsement from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.).
The endorsements came just days after Trone publicly used the term "jigaboo," an "insulting and contemptuous term for a black person" that dates back to the early 1900s, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. "So this Republican jigaboo that it’s the tax rate that’s stopping business investment, it’s just completely faulty by people who have never run a business," Trone said while talking to a black federal official during the Thursday House hearing on President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget request.
The frontrunner in the state’s Democratic primary later claimed he meant to say "bugaboo" and apologized. "I misspoke and mistakenly used a phrase that is offensive. Upon learning the meaning of the word I was deeply disappointed to have accidentally used it, and I apologize," Trone said, adding that as a privileged white man he should not have used that term.
A poll last Wednesday found both Trone and Alsobrooks would lose by double digits to former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, the leading Republican candidate. Hogan led Trone 49 percent to 37 percent and Alsobrooks 50 percent to 36 percent, according to the Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. The results also showed that 64 percent of Maryland voters look on Hogan favorably, compared with only 33 percent for Trone and 26 percent for Alsobrooks.