Angela Alsobrooks Becomes Maryland's First Black Female Senator
Angela Alsobrooks, the top elected official in Prince George’s County, Maryland, is projected to beat Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, becoming the state’s first Black female senator.
Maryland’s U.S. Senate race turned unexpectedly competitive in the general election after Hogan, the last Republican to win statewide in one of the country’s bluest states, entered the GOP primary at the last minute in February.
Democrats are adding two Black women to their ranks in the Senate — Alsobrooks and Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is expected to easily win Tuesday. Only two Black women have ever been elected to the U.S. Senate: Kamala Harris of California and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. The chamber currently has zero Black women.
Hogan, a moderate Republican, was elected governor twice by vowing to be a check on Maryland’s Democratic legislature. But his popularity didn’t translate to a federal race in which Democrats tried to argue he would empower Republicans to enact a GOP agenda and restrict abortion access. Hogan stressed, however, that he was “pro-choice” and would be an independent voice in the upper chamber.
“You’re going to hear nothing but red versus blue,” Hogan said during an October debate with Alsobrooks. “I care more, a lot more, about the red, white and blue.”
At the debate, Alsobrooks vowed “to stand up for our values ... creating economic opportunity for every Maryland family. I’ll also fight for our freedoms, like a woman’s right to choose, contraception and IVF.”
Alsobrooks, a 53-year-old former state’s attorney and the county executive of Prince George’s County, will replace retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin. She beat Rep. David Trone, a wealthy liquor store magnate, in the Democratic primary.
Republicans tried to suggest Alsobrooks was a corrupt politician after it was revealed she improperly benefited from a tax break she did not qualify for on two of her properties. Alsobrooks is working to repay the money owed.
Its top elected official since 2018, Alsobrooks led the majority-Black Prince George’s County through the pandemic and has prioritized its economic development, including the push to open a new FBI headquarters there. But Republicans had seized on crime in the Washington-adjacent county, including a string of carjackings, to try and paint her an ineffective leader.
Democrats were able to successfully wield the abortion issue and tie Hogan to Trump in a way they couldn’t when Hogan was running for a second term as governor.
“I’ve been able to talk to families all over the state, and most are concerned about economic opportunity … tax cuts for the middle class, want to bring down the cost of goods,” Alsobrooks told The Independent last week. “Choice is a huge issue. I’m seeing cross-generational voters who are coming out, from the youngest voters to the oldest voters, and fathers and uncles and grandfathers who are very concerned about choice.”
The website Open Secrets ranked Maryland’s Senate race as one of the most expensive Senate contests this election cycle, with both sides and their allies raising more than $105 million combined.
See full results from the Maryland Senate election here.