A line-by-line review of Maryland’s campaign finance database shows a sophisticated, nationally connected fundraising operation — and reveals how much money aligned with the governor’s re-election never appears in any public filing at all.
By Michael Phillips | MdBayNews
When Gov. Wes Moore filed his latest campaign finance report with the Maryland State Board of Elections, the headline number was hard to miss: more than $7 million raised in a single reporting cycle, with $12.2 million total on the books heading into a re-election year. For a governor who took office just three years ago, those figures reflect a fundraising operation that would be formidable in any state.
But a review of more than 112,000 individual contribution records in Maryland’s campaign finance database — combined with an examination of the state’s full committee registry and federal filings — suggests the disclosed total tells only part of the story. The $7 million may be, in a meaningful sense, the most honest and transparent number associated with Moore’s re-election. It is almost certainly not the largest.
Who is actually writing the checks?
The $7.1 million Moore raised between January 2025 and January 2026 came from 49,000-plus individual transactions. On the surface, the donor base looks broadly participatory: more than 28,000 people gave less than $25 each. Credit card donations — the mechanism of the small online donor — accounted for $4.9 million of the total and more than 42,000 individual transactions. The average donation was $136.
But the distribution is sharply unequal. More than 75 cents of every dollar raised came from donors giving $1,000 or more. The 350 donors who gave $6,000 or above — the legal maximum for a Maryland state candidate — contributed $2.3 million combined. At the top of that list sits a single Bethesda businessman, Andy Marks, who gave $137,000 across multiple filings — the largest disclosed individual contribution in Moore’s campaign history.
The geographic picture is equally striking. Nearly 61 percent of the money came from outside Maryland. New York donors gave $830,000. California gave $740,000. Washington, D.C., gave $483,000. Florida, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington state, and Connecticut all appear among the top ten out-of-state sources. For context: Moore raised more money from donors in New York than from donors in any single Maryland county.
“More than 75 cents of every dollar raised came from donors giving $1,000 or more — making the small-dollar base real but largely symbolic in terms of the total.”
That out-of-state profile reflects something real about Moore’s standing. He is one of a small number of sitting Democratic governors who generate national donor excitement — partly because of his biography, partly because of his outspoken positioning on national policy issues, and partly because of persistent chatter in Democratic circles about his long-term prospects beyond Annapolis.
Top individual and corporate donors, Jan. 2025 – Jan. 2026
Donor
Amount
City / State
Marks, Andy
$137,000
Bethesda, MD
Adler, Daniel
$38,000
New York, NY
Pulse Medical Transportation
$36,000
Owings Mills, MD
Pershing LLC
$34,949
Jersey City, NJ
Mandel, Howard
$24,000
Los Angeles, CA
Bush, Antoinette
$20,000
Washington, DC
Meyer Simon, Sarah
$22,000
New York, NY
Waymo LLC (Alphabet)
$18,000
Mountain View, CA
Medical Facilities of America
$18,000
Lakewood, NJ
Thompson, Warren
$16,000
Reston, VA
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections filings, 2025–2026 Annual reporting period.
Where the money goes: building a permanent operation
Moore’s campaign spent $2.99 million in the same period it raised $6.7 million — a substantial net positive that reflects disciplined financial management heading into a competitive cycle. But the spending ledger reveals something important about how Moore is using the money: he is not just running a campaign. He is building an organization.
The largest single expenditure category was salaries and other compensation at $1.26 million for the period — nearly $6.9 million across all reporting periods combined, making paid staff the dominant cost of Moore’s political operation. The payroll processor Gusto received over $1.3 million all-time, with individual named recipients including Patrick Denny ($292,000 all-time), Edward Miller ($199,000), Angelique Cannon ($174,000), and Tisha Edwards ($143,000) among those receiving the largest direct compensation.
On the consulting side, the picture is that of a campaign plugged into the national Democratic vendor infrastructure. Middle Seat — a prominent Democratic digital advertising and online fundraising firm — received $690,000 across all periods. Paragon, which processes credit card transactions, received $831,000. Hart Research, one of the most respected Democratic polling firms in the country, received $373,000 for surveys and polls. FDM Connects handled direct mail at $448,000. Adeo Advocacy managed fundraising consulting at $357,000.
One expenditure stands out as unusual: $171,742 to the University of Maryland, listed simply as “Other” under Other Expenses in the 2024 Annual report. The purpose is not further specified in the public filings.
Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller’s separate committee raised $930,000 during the same 2026 Annual period and made a notable $250,000 transfer to a committee called “Leave No One Behind Legislative Slate” — a newly registered slate committee that has not yet reported any expenditures. Slate committees in Maryland operate under different rules than candidate committees, with the ability to transfer money among candidates and party infrastructure in ways that provide strategic flexibility.
The money you cannot see in any database
Maryland’s campaign finance disclosure system is among the more rigorous in the country. The state requires candidate committees to report contributions above $6 by name, address, employer, and amount — which is why this analysis was possible. What is visible in those records is genuinely transparent.
The gaps, however, are significant — and they are not accidents. They are the predictable result of how national political money has been structured over the past two decades.
Maryland’s committee registry tracks 2,602 registered political committees holding $152 million in total disclosed contributions. Moore’s $12.2 million is one node in that network, not the whole picture. The state’s Working Families Party PAC, for instance, has raised $1.26 million and spent almost none of it — a fully loaded independent expenditure vehicle that can run ads or fund field operations supporting Moore without a dollar appearing in his campaign filings. Everytown for Gun Safety, registered in Maryland as a participating organization, has raised $19.6 million nationally and has already given $5,500 directly to Moore’s campaign — a token that signals alignment but bears no relationship to what the organization could deploy independently.
Federal Super PACs add another layer. Organizations like Priorities USA, American Bridge, and Future Forward can spend unlimited sums on television, digital, and direct mail in Maryland’s gubernatorial race and report only to the Federal Election Commission, not to the state Board of Elections. A review of Federal Election Commission data shows that George Soros, for instance, has given $248.9 million in disclosed federal contributions since 1979 — with $189.8 million of that coming since 2020. His disclosed Maryland-specific giving in those records amounts to roughly $39,000 in contributions to the state Democratic Party. The remainder of his political spending moves through Super PACs and party infrastructure at a level that creates broad ambient benefit for Democratic candidates at every level.
“The gaps in disclosure are not accidents. They are the predictable result of how national political money has been structured over the past two decades.”
Then there is the category of money that does not appear anywhere at all. 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations — classified by the IRS as “social welfare” groups — are not required to disclose their donors publicly or to election authorities. They can spend freely on issue advocacy that benefits specific candidates, fund voter registration and turnout operations, and underwrite the infrastructure that surrounds a political campaign, all without any public donor disclosure. National networks organized around this structure — including groups affiliated with the Arabella Advisors network and the Open Society Foundations — collectively move hundreds of millions of dollars each election cycle in ways that never appear in any state or federal campaign finance database.
For Maryland voters trying to understand who is funding the political environment around their governor, these gaps matter. The individuals and organizations whose money flows through these channels may have significant policy interests in decisions Moore makes from the State House — but their connection to his political operation is structurally invisible.
What a realistic picture looks like
Taken together, a credible estimate of total political resources aligned behind Moore’s 2026 re-election — combining the disclosed campaign account, party infrastructure, independent expenditure vehicles, and outside dark money — would place the real figure somewhere between $25 million and $50 million. The $12.2 million on his official books represents perhaps a quarter to a half of what will ultimately be spent on his behalf.
That is not unusual for a sitting governor with a national profile in a state that draws significant Democratic donor attention. What is perhaps unusual is how clearly the data illustrates the gap between the disclosed and the actual.
The financial disparity between Moore and his challengers is itself a story. The Republican primary field — which includes former state delegate Dan Cox, making his second gubernatorial run after losing to Moore by more than two-to-one in 2022, along with businessman Ed Hale Sr. and John Myrick — has collectively raised a fraction of what Moore holds in cash. State filings show Cox’s committee reporting no disclosed contributions on file, Hale’s committee at roughly $15,000 raised, and Myrick’s at $17,000. Moore’s $12.2 million dwarfs the entire Republican field combined by a ratio of more than 500 to one. On the Democratic side, Moore faces only token primary opposition from physician Eric Felber, whose committee has reported no contributions to date.
The primary election is scheduled for June 23, 2026, with the general election on November 3, 2026.
All Maryland campaign finance records referenced in this article are publicly available at the Maryland State Board of Elections Campaign Reporting Information System website, campaignfinance.maryland.gov.
Data methodology: Analysis is based on Maryland SBE contribution, expenditure, and committee filings downloaded April 16, 2026, covering all report periods for the Moore for Maryland and Friends of Aruna Miller committees, comprising 112,162 individual records. Federal contribution data is from FEC Schedule A public disclosure files.
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