Democrats raise more money than Republicans in many Maryland county executive races

[00:00:00]Taking Anne Arundel County in the county executive race for example, the top Democrats running have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, while the lone Republican running for county executive is sitting at just 16,000.

[00:00:13]For weeks now, your inbox has probably been flooded asking you to donate to a campaign. A show of support as candidates make their pitch to voters.

[00:00:22]During a campaign, it's money that matters. For county executive races >> There's a lot of money flowing into these into these campaigns and it's a significant amount more and more than it was this time last year. Candidates they say >> that money is really only flowing in for Democrats.

[00:00:36]>> It shows the weakness of the statewide Republican Party.

[00:00:39]>> In Anne Arundel County, more than $2 million has been raised by candidates running for county executive. Pete Smith has $768,000 and Allison Pickard has $755,000.

[00:00:51]James Kitchen is trailing them with $544,000.

[00:00:55]But state records show Dave Crawford, the lone Republican, has just $16,000.

[00:00:59]>> What is wrong with this party? I mean this is a county that has had plenty of Republican leaders.

[00:01:05]>> Political expert John Deddy shares a similar sentiment.

[00:01:08]>> That is That's really sad. I mean you should be able to you know, you should be able to raise $16,000 in a week if you're running for a major office like that, but it shows the weakness of the Maryland Republican Party not being able to get something together to help these candidates.

[00:01:23]>> And it's a similar story in other counties. In Baltimore County, top Democratic candidates for county executive have raised far more than Republican candidates. And in Howard County, there isn't even a Republican running for county executive.

[00:01:35]>> And you look at Anne Arundel County that is used to be considered a really competitive county, one that maybe even Democrats are more of an underdog in.

[00:01:44]And this year, the Democrats are fielding three strong candidates.

[00:01:49]Republicans are fielding one average candidate. And I think that that's a major problem for the party because when the party has that type of reputation, what happens is people don't donate to the party as much. People get more selective about the candidates they give to, and I think that that's hurting the Republican Party statewide.

[00:02:10]>> When it comes to races across the state, while Maryland tends to lean left, >> because of the fact that Maryland is more moderate, that these Trump-type candidates are hurting the Republican Party statewide in these local elections.

[00:02:25]>> Didi says Republicans can still gain a foothold if it's the right person running for office. He also says these local races set the scene for bigger races down the road.

[00:02:33]>> Democrats are doing well statewide not because of any brilliant things Democrats are doing. It's because of the state of the Republican Party in the state of Maryland. And that's kind of sad in a lot of ways because you lose that two-party competition and the legislature Democrats can do whatever they want. And that becomes a that becomes a major problem for democracy.

[00:02:54]>> If you haven't cast your vote yet, you still have some time left today for early voting. And if not, you can cast your vote in person next week. In Baltimore, Jessica Babb, Fox 45 News.

[00:03:07]>> I'm Kai Jackson. Thank you for watching.

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