In a couple weeks, Marylanders throughout the state will be able to vote for political candidates in the primary election. Democratic senatorial candidate David Trone is currently a member of the House of Representatives and has a long history in the wine & spirits business. Mr. Trone visited Salisbury University in April.
Currently serving his third term in the House of Representatives, Trone has spent more than 42 million dollars from his personal fortune on his senatorial campaign thusfar, making him one of the top funders in Senate primary history. He is the front-running Democrat in the race, trailed by County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is also vying for the open Senate seat.
Mr. Trone has been hailed as a highly progressive candidate and has made bipartisan legislative accomplishments which include expanding access to mental health services, resources to fight addiction and other areas.
While visiting SU, Mr. Trone made his last stop of the day in Conway Hall. He spent the morning touring campus, visiting classrooms and the Student Government Association (SGA) office. After students were left awaiting his arrival for nearly an hour, Mr. Trone and members of his campaign staff made an entrance into the room.
His pitch to the class included a mention of his business experience owning Total Wine & More, an alcohol retail company, and a description of his platform’s focal points, such as battling addiction, mental illness, systemic racism and other issues which his campaign is centered upon.
Trone’s involvement in the alcohol retail business
Over twenty students attended the event and multiple students decided to ask questions during the Question & Answer section. Anna Belong, an SU Junior, asked whether Trone’s business interests in the alcohol retail industry contradicted his platform on combating addiction.
“I’m the largest retailer in the United States for wine and spirits, and [do] you think we’re going back to prohibition?” Trone said. “So that’s a no. So we decided that’s a no.”
“So somebody’s gonna sell the wine and spirits, let’s find someone whose the most responsible person, one of those kinds of people you’d like to have at the top, most responsible, who supports things like, you know, car locks if you have a DUI, ignition locks, we support all those things.”
Since the early 1980s, Trone has been a large player in the alcohol retail business. One of the first businesses he founded was located in Pittsburgh, and he helped several family members open and operate alcohol retail stores in the surrounding area.
Early in his career, he faced several legal battles for allegedly violating Pennsylvania laws such as one retailer operating out of several locations, tampering with public records and other charges.
Mr. Trone was able to continue his business prospects and founded Total Wine & More with his brother. The company has become the largest privately owned alcohol retail business in the United States.
Total Wine & More operates in 18 states, including Maryland. In order to further expand the company, resources have been funneled into promoting bills across numerous states which would increase the number of retail licenses that can be held by a single person.
Retail licenses tend to be limited in order to prevent large businesses from completely dominating smaller businesses.
FTC investigation, Total Wine & More
Another question regarding Mr. Trone’s business interests arose when Anna Belong mentioned Total Wine & More’s refusal to share tax records for a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation.
As part of an investigation into Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, an alcohol distributor, the FTC made multiple requests for documentation from Total Wine & More to determine whether they were receiving preferential prices, putting smaller businesses at a disadvantage.
After several failures to produce the documentation, the FTC filed a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) in Oct. 2023 as a way to get the needed documents from Total Wine & More.
“[The FTC] asked for every invoice from many years, from 260 stores; that’s millions of documents, and the company thought that was overburdening and ridiculous. So that’s what they think.” Trone said. “So the FTC has a case… it’s just wrong.”
Mr. Trone then attempted further articulating his point by creating a hypothetical scenario with students in the classroom.
“They’re saying, [if] you went out and bought 100 of that shirt [and] this young lady went out and bought one, would you have asked for a discount to buy 100 from that store, when you bought 100?” Trone asked. “You thought you should have maybe paid less than her. What do you think?”
She responded to the hypothetical question by saying she would not want a discount; since there is no discount being offered to the majority of people, or businesses in this case, one individual should not be able to pay lower prices merely because they are purchasing more product.
“Oh, you want to pay the same? No, of course not,” Trone said. “She’s not a capitalist. She’s clearly not a capitalist.”
“People like us bring value to consumers. Because we buy in bulk, but if you want to have the big companies make unlimited profits, they won’t give discounts. They just keep on increasing.”
He then indicated Anna, the student who had asked the question.
“So her theory of antitrust, I believe, and I’ve studied this for a long time, is just dead wrong,” Trone said.
“It’s a complicated issue. Read up on it if you like. Fascinating.”
Student perception
Anna Belong, an SU Junior triple majoring in Political Science, International Studies and French, received the brunt of Mr. Trone’s responses.
“It was interesting, it was honestly kind of comical to me because I am asking questions and it’s actually crazy to see in real time a politician do the work-around,” Belong said.
“Like me asking about his campaign against addiction and alcoholism while also being the owner of the largest liquor company in the United States, and him responding, ‘do you think we’re gonna go back to prohibition?’”
Belong read several articles and watched a few videos to learn more about Mr. Trone prior to the event, coming prepared with a list of straight-forward questions. Belong considers the event to have been a decent learning experience, though she found Mr. Trone’s responses to her questions condescending and unsatisfactory.
“The [shirt] analogy that he was trying to use was because the FTC is probing into Southern Glazers for selling him products for a lower price than they are for other companies, which means that smaller companies lose out, because you’re getting the same product that they’re getting, and you’re paying [less],” Belong said. “It’s unfair to small businesses.”
“He said at the beginning that small businesses are like the backbone of the economy, but laws and regulations – antitrust laws like the Robinson-Patman Act – that provide that barrier for companies to all pay at the same rate, he doesn’t respect them. He said it himself, he doesn’t respect the way that they’re applying that antitrust law and he thinks it’s stupid.”
Kayla Clark, an SU freshman double majoring in Political Science and International Relations, lives in the district Trone represents. She was displeased with his attitude and late arrival.
“It didn’t really feel like he cared to give us the time of day, like he was just kind of here, it was just a stop, not that he actually cared to really inform us,” Clark said. “I mean obviously I’m sure he’s busy, he had things to do, but if you have something planned like this at least be on time, because we have lives as well. “
Clark found Mr. Trone’s way of addressing the questions posed during the event similarly distasteful.
“One of the questions he answered, the girl was asking about one of his policies, but it was also the same day he said the slur, and he brought up the slur even though she didn’t ask him about it,” Clark said. “She was asking about how his business [interests] kind of like contradicts his policies about business, and he runs a very popular wine & spirits company.”
Her overall opinion of Mr. Trone’s demeanor during the visit was largely negative. His tone and approach towards speaking to the students gave off the feeling of an overbearing presence.
“These are young students, half of them minorities, and there is a way to approach it that’s not overbearing and ‘I know all compared to you’, which is what he came off as,” she said. “Not great, I don’t know if he’ll be getting Salisbury’s vote.”
Chris Smith, an SU sophomore majoring in Political Science, knew seldom about Mr. Trone prior to attending the campaign event, though he had seen various TV advertisements produced by the Trone campaign.
“I always thought he was more towards schooling and getting funding to schools, because all his campaign ads were for schooling,” Smith said. “But when he came to talk he didn’t mention a single thing about schooling… all the teachers in Baltimore county [were] saying ‘Go for Trone’ but I didn’t hear anything about schooling.”
Smith was not impressed with Trone’s SU performance and expressed distaste with how he carried himself, especially with the students in attendance.
“David Trone as a person, I didn’t really like the way that he approached it; he was very condescending, to say the least,” Smith said. “I felt like he made us feel dumb when he was pointing at us asking questions to prove a point, and I thought that was very childish for a man of his, one, age and two, a man of his status, running for Senate.”
“He danced around a lot of questions and only answered what he wanted to, and not the question at hand. All around not a good guy.”
By COLIN P. McEvers
Editor in Chief
Featured image courtesy of Colin McEvers
Sources:
The Washington Post: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/16/us/politics/david-trone-maryland-senate-money.html
Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blue-state-dem-hot-water-racial-slur-sets-new-record-senate-primary
Colorado Sun: https://coloradosun.com/2022/08/01/david-trone-colorado-liquor-measure/
FTC: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/total_wine_petition.pdf
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