Blegay blasts AIPAC spending in crowded Hoyer replacement race

Nearly $1.2 million in outside spending is now shaping the fight to replace Steny Hoyer, and Wala Blegay is arguing that Prince George’s County voters should treat it as more than a crowded primary. In an interview with Breaking Points, the Prince George’s County Council member cast the contest as a test of who will carry local concerns into Congress, while her opponent, Adrian Boafo, benefits from a major AIPAC-affiliated super PAC push.

Hoyer’s retirement on January 8, 2026, after 45 years in Congress, opened Maryland’s 5th Congressional District to one of the most competitive races in the state. The district stretches across Calvert County, Charles County, and St. Mary’s County, plus parts of Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel County, blending Southern Maryland communities with suburban Prince George’s voters who often have different day-to-day priorities but are tied to the same federal seat.

Blegay has tried to make those local priorities the center of her campaign. She has pointed to utility bills, SNAP cuts, federal layoffs, and the power demands of AI data centers as the issues that will affect households in Prince George’s far more directly than national ideological fights. That argument lands in a county where more than 70,000 federal employees and contractors work, making any wave of layoffs or contract losses a direct economic risk for families from Largo to Bowie.

The data-center debate has become part of that same local politics. Prince George’s paused new data-center approvals in September 2025 while county leaders reviewed zoning, siting, energy use, and environmental concerns. County officials later formed a Qualified Data Center Task Force to examine the impact on energy demand, ratepayers, the environment, and quality of life, a sign that the issue has moved from planning jargon to a real household cost question.

The primary will take place on June 23, 2026, with early voting running from June 11 through June 18. At least 20 candidates entered the race, and other reports put the field at roughly 30, a scale that makes organization, donor money, and name recognition especially important.

Hoyer has already endorsed Boafo and appeared with him at campaign events, giving the delegate an early establishment edge. But Blegay is betting that opposition to AIPAC spending, along with frustration over power bills and federal insecurity, can cut through the crowded field and give Prince George’s County a stronger voice in a district where county clout may be decided as much by money as by votes.