Maryland’s Senate race was friendly — until it really, really wasn’t

The conversation between Angela Alsobrooks and her opponent Larry Hogan started off cordial, even friendly on Thursday evening.

It was a vibe that lasted for all of about thirty seconds.

Within moments of the debate hosted by NBC’s Chuck Todd kicking off on Maryland Public Television (MPT), the two candidates had dropped the cordiality and were trading accusations of dishonesty. That’s a sign of not just the passionate state of politics in 2024, but the stakes on the line in Maryland, where Hogan’s candidacy puts a formerly safe Democratic seat in the US Senate in real contention for the first time in many years.

Hogan, a popular former governor who left office with favorability ratings well above 50%, was the top pick for national Republicans seeking the possibility of picking up retiring Senator Ben Cardin’s seat this year. That fact — as well as his 2022 veto of legislation passed by the state legislature which would have expanded the types of medical professionals who can perform abortions in the state to include nurse practitioners, midwives and physician’s assistants — were top issues of contention during Thursday’s debate.

On his 2022 veto of the abortion legislation, Hogan ripped Alsobrooks for what he called an “insulting” “lie” about his record when she attacked him for the veto.

“The bill you’re referring to was about protecting women, because it was rolling back and making it less safe for women to get access to abortion. [It] was allowing non-medical professionals [to provide them],” he said.

“For you to lie about something as important as this issue, it really is insulting,” Hogan continued. He then quipped: “That’s the way they talk in Washington.”

But Alsobrooks, who had said her opponent had “vetoed abortion care legislation”, clearly came ready to land some punches. And in Maryland’s hyper-political DC-brained landscape, that meant not tying Hogan to Donald Trump, but to Mitch McConnell, leader of the GOP Senate caucus. McConnell’s links to Hogan’s are much clearer, and the county executive was ready to dig into them.

“The fact of the matter is, if he wanted to be an independent, he should have run as one,” Alsobrooks said of her opponent. “He did not opt to run as an independent. He opted to accept Mitch McConnell’s request to come in. Mitch McConnell bragged about his ability to recruit the former governor, because he believed that he would give a majority in the Senate to Republicans, which has huge consequences.”

It was a line engineered to aim right at the kind of party loyalist Democrat who may have waffled in their fealty by supporting Hogan’s runs for governor, but have been more skeptical about sending him to the Senate where party affiliation is much more relevant. She also was eager to tie herself to her “mentor”, Kamala Harris, whom she argued would be much better served with a majority in the Senate that would not hold up her legislative priorities.

“You know what the fact is — if the Republicans have a majority in the Senate, there will be no vote on Roe,” Alsobrooks said, referring to legislation to establish federal abortion protections. “We’ve seen this all before with these Republicans who refuse to allow Barack Obama his vote on Merrick Garland.”

It was a wonk’s delight of a debate. Alsobrooks was clearly out for blood, but attempting to do so with attacks firmly grounded in policy, rather than personal differences. Those included criticisms of the Republican Party’s increasingly isolationist bent on NATO, as well as a 2022 speech in which the governor referred to Trump’s Supreme Court nominees as “incredible”. Her description of the governor’s infrastructure and mass transit policy: “Shameful”.

Hogan, preoccupied with shedding any “Republican” label and touting his ability to work with Harris, if need be, dodged an opportunity to attack his opponent over a minor tax scandal and stated his opposition to the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court just before the 2020 election. While he faulted his party for picking partisan nominees, he wouldn’t say how he would have voted on the individual nominations under Trump’s presidency.

“I think he said how he would vote. He said he thought they were incredible,” Alsobrooks shot back in response.

The two would battle further on the issue of the abortion bill vetoed by Hogan in 2022, with the governor accusing his opponent of basing her entire campaign “on lies” about his record, and Alsobrooks tying him directly to Trump on the matter. She also pointed to efforts by conservative Republicans to ban IVF, and said that the matter was one that Hogan’s mere presence in the Senate, even voting with the Democrats, would endanger.

“The Republican Party has declared war on the reproductive freedoms of women,” she declared.

Guns were the other issue on which the two traded their most pointed attacks. Hogan accused Alsobrooks of telling “half-truths” and “trying to confuse people” after she accused him of backing down to the gun lobby and opposing 2021 legislation to create a waiting period required to purchase long guns.

“Tonight, Governor Hogan demonstrated why Marylanders trust him to fight for them in the US Senate as an independent voice. He delivered a clear vision for how he will lead the charge for bipartisan solutions to tackle the challenges facing Maryland and the nation, from lowering costs and growing the economy to improving public safety. At every turn, County Executive Alsobrooks sounded every bit like the Washington politician she aspires to be, repeating discredited lies and embracing extreme partisan positions, like abolishing the filibuster and expanding the Supreme Court,” said a spokesperson for Hogan’s campaign.

They added: “In a rare moment of candor, she admitted she has been lying about Governor Hogan’s position on choice. The people of Maryland saw tonight who will truly represent their interests in Washington. Governor Hogan will always put Maryland families first and work across the aisle to get things done.”

Thursday’s debate was an end to the friendly facade that had dominated the race thus far; if Larry Hogan wasn’t running “against” Alsobrooks (his own characterization) at the beginning of the debate, he certainly was by the end, when he was laying down a stony takedown of efforts to battle crime in his opponent’s home county. Even if Maryland’s Senate seat doesn’t end up determining control of the upper chamber, the two candidates came ready to fight as if it would.

Alsobrooks is the currently-serving county executive of Prince George’s County, a populous region encompassing part of the Washington suburbs as well as the towns of Laurel and Bowie, and the area around University of Maryland known as College Park.

“Angela Alsobrooks won the debate. Full stop,” Connor Lounsbury, a senior adviser to her campaign, claimed in a statement after it aired. “Angela Alsobrooks put forth a clear vision for the future, one in which our freedoms are protected and our families can thrive, and laid out the incredibly high stakes of this race — the Senate majority.”