DGA Action Sends Another $460,000 to Question 3 Campaign, Bringing Total to $1.26 Million

Federal filings show the committee has moved millions more to governor’s races in other states, while Maryland’s last regular pre-election report ends Oct. 18.

By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews

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A committee funded almost entirely by the Democratic Governors Association has now put $1.26 million behind the campaign for Maryland’s Question 3, and $460,000 of that moved in the past three days, according to filings with the Maryland State Board of Elections.

The committee is DGA Action, registered in Maryland as a participating organizations committee. It filed four reports covering March 20, 2025 through Oct. 28, 2026. Three of them were filed Wednesday afternoon. Two carry later dates, Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, because Maryland titles 48-hour reports by their due dates. The board’s reports list all three as filed Oct. 28. Together they show payments to Fight Back MD, the committee urging a yes vote on the redistricting amendment, on four dates:

• $800,000 on Oct. 16
• $160,000 on Oct. 26
• $140,000 on Oct. 27
• $160,000 on Oct. 28

Each is listed as a contribution under “Other Expenses.” The $800,000 payment is the one MDBayNews reported Oct. 24. The three newer payments came after the close of the Fight Back MD report reviewed for that story, which ran only through Oct. 18, so they are not yet in the campaign’s own filings as far as MDBayNews has seen. This is a follow-up.

DGA Action is not the only committee sending money to Fight Back MD this week. The board’s expenditure export, downloaded Oct. 28, and two 48-hour reports from AMERIPAC Future show at least two more payments since the Oct. 18 cutoff:

• AMERIPAC Future, $50,000 on Oct. 26, in a report filed at 8:11 a.m. Wednesday.
• Democracy Summer Leadership PAC, $10,000 on Oct. 20.

With DGA Action’s $460,000, that is at least $520,000 from three committees that Fight Back MD’s last reviewed report does not cover. AMERIPAC Future also reported a $100,000 payment on Oct. 7, which falls inside the earlier period.

The timing matters. Maryland’s second pre-general report was due Oct. 23 and covers Oct. 5 through Oct. 18 for ballot issue committees like Fight Back MD. The next regular report, covering Oct. 19 through Nov. 10, is not due until Nov. 17, two weeks after Election Day. Payer-side 48-hour reports like the ones above are one public window in between. They show what committees say they paid, not what Fight Back MD has received or spent.

More Than 95 Percent Came From the Democratic Governors Association

The reports show a committee with one dominant donor. The Democratic Governors Association is listed as the source of $33.76 million of the roughly $35.32 million DGA Action has reported receiving, which includes a $769,981.75 in-kind list acquisition dated Oct. 16, 2025. That is more than 95 percent of the total.

This week’s incoming money followed the same pattern. The association sent $1.3 million on Oct. 20, $600,000 on Oct. 21 and $2.05 million on Oct. 23. It sent another $200,000 on Oct. 28, the same day DGA Action sent $160,000 on to Fight Back MD. The filings do not connect the two entries, and neither does this article.

A few other names appear in the reports:

• The State + Local Election Alliance gave $1.5 million on Oct. 16. DGA Action sent its $800,000 to Fight Back MD that same day.
• The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community gave $50,000 on Sept. 14.
• One individual gave $10,000 in two checks, one in April 2025 and one in August 2026.

The filings list donors and payments. They do not show which donor’s money funded which payment.

$11.5 Million to Ohio, $10.7 Million to Virginia

In the Maryland reports reviewed, Fight Back MD is the only payee, even though DGA Action reported about $35.32 million in receipts, counting the in-kind list acquisition. Federal Election Commission filings show much of where the rest went. They list a committee called DGA Action (FEC ID C00503789). MDBayNews matched it to the Maryland filer by comparing receipts. The FEC shows $13,859,981.75 from the Democratic Governors Association through Aug. 31, 2026. The Maryland reports show $13,090,000 in cash from the association through that date, plus the $769,981.75 in-kind list acquisition. Together, that is the same figure to the dollar.

The FEC data reviewed here runs through Oct. 14 for spending. For that period, the filings show:

• Ohioans for Lower Costs, a Columbus, Ohio, committee that is not a candidate’s own campaign, received $11.505 million in 10 payments between Sept. 1 and Oct. 13. The largest was $3 million on Sept. 2. The Democratic Governors Association has announced the group’s ads in Ohio’s governor’s race, which contrast Republican Vivek Ramaswamy with Democrat Amy Acton and criticize Ramaswamy.
• Rob Sand For Iowa received $500,000 on Oct. 14.
• Lynne Walz for Nebraska received $7,500 on Oct. 9.
• The Democratic Governors Association received $1.5 million on Sept. 23, plus a $586.78 in-kind payment for digital services to the Kansas Democratic Party.
• The rest went to vendors for items such as texting, list acquisition, polling and card processing fees.

That is about $13.69 million spent from Sept. 1 through Oct. 14. The payments listed above come to about $13.51 million. Roughly $175,000 more went to vendors and fees. Over the same stretch, the Maryland reports show about $13.58 million coming in. For most of this fall, money has arrived and moved back out at nearly the same pace.

The earlier record looks similar. In 2025, DGA Action reported $10.7 million in payments to Spanberger for Governor, spread over 13 payments between May 30 and Oct. 31. The FEC data also shows $195,000 to the Democratic Party of Virginia’s nonfederal account in 2025, $110,000 to Middle of the Road PAC on Dec. 19, 2025, and $35,000 to the Kansas Democratic Party the same day.

The federal filings show that DGA Action’s Maryland spending is part of a much larger operation, with millions flowing to campaigns and allied groups in other states. What the filings do not yet show is the last two weeks. The federal data reviewed here does not cover the period after Oct. 14. The Maryland reports identify $7.88 million in receipts between Oct. 15 and Oct. 28, $6.38 million from the Democratic Governors Association and $1.5 million from the State + Local Election Alliance. In the same period, $1.26 million went to Fight Back MD. Neither set of records gives a complete accounting of DGA Action’s other disbursements in those days, and no report lists a bank balance. MDBayNews therefore cannot determine how the rest was used or what the committee holds now.

The money behind the “fight back” message

Gov. Wes Moore, who says he will vote yes, calls Question 3 a response to President Donald Trump’s push for mid-decade redistricting in red states. Fight Back Maryland, the Democratic campaign supporting the question, says that “when voters hear what’s at stake, a majority support Question 3.”

Question 3 would amend the state constitution. Under the ballot language the Supreme Court of Maryland ordered after finding the original wording misleading, it would make certain requirements apply only to state Senate and House of Delegates districts. It would also state that nothing in the Maryland Constitution provides criteria for the boundaries of a congressional plan, and let the General Assembly give the Supreme Court original jurisdiction over congressional plans. UMBC’s Mileah Kromer has described it as letting Maryland Democrats draw congressional lines without constraints in the constitution. Dan Schwartz, the Democrat challenging Rep. Andy Harris in the 1st District, says he opposes it. He argues Democrats are wrong to target the state’s only Republican-leaning district.

Voters have not been warm to it so far. A University of Maryland, Baltimore County poll of 776 likely voters, taken Sept. 22 to 27 and released Oct. 7, found 53 percent planned to vote no and 25 percent yes. Among Democrats, 42 percent said no and 35 percent said yes. Kromer said the gap between her poll and polls using the ballot language suggests that “effective messaging could move it either way.”

The campaign’s own latest numbers are older than the payments above. Fight Back MD’s report for Oct. 5 through Oct. 18 showed $402,208.92 spent and $1,832,075.68 in cash on hand as of Oct. 18, a figure MDBayNews noted in its earlier story is not a current balance. It says nothing about money received or spent since.

MDBayNews reported Oct. 24 that at least 71 percent of Fight Back MD’s net monetary contributions through Oct. 18 came from donors listing addresses outside Maryland. A listed address is not necessarily where money originated. Still, a campaign built on a “fight back” slogan is being paid for, in large part, by outside committees.

What to watch

• Early voting ends Thursday, Oct. 29, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Election Day is Nov. 3.
• Whether Fight Back MD’s next report shows the $520,000 reported by payers since Oct. 18, and where it goes.
• Any further DGA Action reports filed before Election Day, in Maryland and with the FEC. The FEC reports are what will show where the late-October money went.

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Sources: Maryland State Board of Elections, campaign finance reports for DGA Action (Filer ID 16020366): 48-Hour Report dated Oct. 18, 2026, covering March 20, 2025 through Oct. 16, 2026 (filed Oct. 19); 48-Hour Report dated Oct. 28, 2026, covering Oct. 17 through Oct. 26; 48-Hour Report dated Oct. 29, 2026, covering Oct. 27; and 48-Hour Report dated Oct. 30, 2026, covering Oct. 28 (the last three filed Oct. 28, 2026). Maryland State Board of Elections, AMERIPAC Future (Filer ID 16020361) 48-Hour Reports dated Oct. 9, 2026 (Oct. 7 activity) and Oct. 28, 2026 (Oct. 8 through Oct. 26), and the board’s expenditure and contribution exports downloaded Oct. 28, 2026. Federal Election Commission, DGA Action (C00503789), Schedule A and Schedule B data and electronic filings through Oct. 14, 2026 (most recent filing in the data: file number 2038850, loaded Oct. 22, 2026), downloaded Oct. 28, 2026 from FEC.gov. Democratic Governors Association, “NEW: Ohioans for Lower Costs Ads Highlight Stark Contrast Between Ramaswamy and Acton” and “Ohioans for Lower Costs Releases First Ads in Ohio Governor’s Race,” democraticgovernors.org. Totals are MDBayNews calculations from those records. MDBayNews, “An $800,000 Washington PAC Check Is Now the Biggest Gift Behind Question 3,” Oct. 24, 2026. NBC Washington, “Maryland redistricting enters the spotlight ahead of November election.” The Baltimore Banner, coverage of the UMBC Institute of Politics poll on Question 3. UMBC Institute of Politics, poll release dated Oct. 7, 2026, via Maryland Matters. The Daily Record, “Poll: Voters oppose MD redistricting ballot question when presented ‘meat of the political outcome,'” Oct. 7, 2026. FOX45 Baltimore, “Democrat challenging Andy Harris breaks with his party to oppose Maryland’s Question 3.” FOX45 Baltimore, “Maryland’s 2026 General Election: Deadlines and ways to vote.” WJLA, “Maryland Supreme Court keeps redistricting question on ballot, orders clearer language.” Maryland State Board of Elections, 2026 gubernatorial campaign finance reporting schedule. Maryland State Board of Elections, 2026 general election dates and deadlines.

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