Alsobrooks joins field of Md. Democrats seeking U.S. Senate seat in 2024

Listen to this article

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks on Tuesday joined the Democratic field to succeed longtime U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, who last week said he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2024.

In a video announcement Tuesday morning, Alsobrooks said, “There aren’t a lot of people like me in the U.S. Senate – people who live like, think like and who look like the people they’re supposed to represent. I’m running for Senate to be a voice for families like the ones I grew up with here and who I’ve worked for throughout my life.”

Only two Black women have ever been elected to the U.S. Senate. The first was former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun in 1992, and the second was former Sen. Kamala Harris, who left her seat in 2021 to become the nation’s first female, Black and South Asian American vice president.

There also are not any women in Maryland’s 10-member federal delegation.

U.S. Rep. David Trone, a two-term congressman and wealthy co-founder of Total Wine & More liquor stores, Montgomery County Councilman Will Jawando, and activist Jerome Segal also have announced their candidacies.

In November, Alsobrooks was elected to her second four-year term as the Prince George’s County executive, winning 91% of the primary vote before moving on to an uncontested general election in a county home to the state’s highest concentration of registered Democrats.

Roughly one in five Democratic voters in Maryland lives in Prince George’s County.

Alsobrooks is the first Black woman to hold the office of county executive in Maryland, according to her campaign. She was also the first woman to be the Prince George’s County executive.

She previously served as the top prosecutor in Prince George’s County, and she was the youngest person and first woman to hold that position, according to her campaign.

In March 2022, Alsobrooks gave then-gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore a significant boost when she endorsed him in a competitive Democratic primary.

“I have long admired (Alsobrooks) as a fierce fighter for Prince Georgians, and I am so honored for her support,” Moore, now the state’s governor, said in a statement at the time. “I am eager to work with her to support families in gorgeous Prince George’s and across Maryland now and for years to come.”

The race to replace Cardin is expected to be pricey, especially given Trone’s personal wealth. He spent more than $12 million of his own money on his District 6 reelection bid last year, according to The Associated Press. Trone’s district includes Western Maryland and part of Montgomery County.

In January, Alsobrooks had about $231,000 in cash on hand, a finance report shows. But, federal campaign finance laws state that she cannot transfer that money directly to her federal committee.

Jawando had a cash balance of about $5,200 in January. The two-term councilman is also a published author who has worked as a civil rights attorney, an adviser to former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and as associate director of public engagement during President Barack Obama’s administration, according to his campaign website.

Segal, a perennial candidate, was one of seven candidates who challenged Cardin in the Democratic primary in 2018. Segal received 3.4% of the vote, good for third behind Chelsea Manning, a transgender activist and former Army intelligence analyst imprisoned for leaking classified government documents to WikiLeaks.

Segal ran for president in 2020 as the Bread and Roses Party candidate. He was also one of 10 candidates in the 2022 gubernatorial Democratic primary that Moore won.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin also is seen as a potential Democratic candidate, according to The Associated Press, though he hadn’t made an announcement as of Tuesday.

Maryland hasn’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in more than 40 years. Despite reports of national Republican leaders trying to recruit him to run for Cardin’s seat, former Gov. Larry Hogan has said he has no interest in being a senator.