It was drizzling and a little chilly when Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks came dancing down Woodberry Park’s concrete stairs on the last Saturday in April.
“Hey Baltimore!” she shouted to roaring applause.
The 53-year-old single mother is one of the two frontrunners in the Democratic contest to fill Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat. If she wins the primary on May 14, she is likely to face former Gov. Larry Hogan, the expected Republican nominee, in November.
It was a fairly small crowd — there were maybe a few dozen people. Alsobrooks doled out hugs and fist pumped the air as she danced to Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine.”
She stopped to admire 5-year-old Luna Coates’ sign. Large purple letters read “Girl Power” above a purple and blue rainbow. She and her 9-year-old sister Charlize posed for photos with Alsobrooks. Their mom, Laura Clime-Coates, said she just signed up to volunteer with the campaign.
“We are reproductive rights activists,” Clime-Coates said, “and we want to have as many women who support reproductive rights in power as possible.”
She said she agrees with Alsobrooks on many issues, but her support for the candidate also has to do with the fact that Alsobrooks is a Black woman — and would be only the third Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, the first from Maryland.
“We definitely don't need another rich white man in the Senate,” she said. “Representation matters.”
Alsobrooks’ background is part of what makes her a strong candidate, said Stephanie Smith, chair of Baltimore’s House delegation in Annapolis.
For example, Smith said, Alsobrooks has a personal interest in protecting women’s reproductive rights, not just as a woman, but as the mother of a daughter attending college in Georgia, a state with a six-week abortion ban.
“You can't fight for a perspective you've never entertained and you've never experienced,” Smith said.
Alsobrooks was born and raised in Prince George’s County, where her mother was a receptionist and her father delivered newspapers. After college and law school, she worked her way up through local government in Prince George’s, winning two terms as state’s attorney starting in 2010, followed by two terms as county executive.
“She’s struggled, she's attained educational levels that even her parents didn't achieve, and then she's gone forth to become, you know, a statewide leader,” Smith said. “That arc of achievement and that arc of economic trajectory, that's an important perspective that is too often missing in the U.S. Senate.”
Alsobrooks told the crowd on that drizzly Saturday that she plans to draw on her own experiences as she fights for economic opportunity for the people of Baltimore and of Maryland. She rattled off a list of her policy priorities, including educational equality, affordable housing, and the ability to grow generational wealth.
She routinely talks about giving people not just second chances but “first chances.”
“We should be able to increase income in a way that allows families to look forward to having their children live better than they did,” she told reporters after the crowds had cleared. “I believe in second chances, but I believe in everything that I have, that people also deserve to have the kinds of initial investments in pre-K education, in prenatal care, in housing and other things that allow them to thrive.”
Alsobrooks has received a long list of high-profile endorsements, including from former U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, five of Maryland’s current members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones and state Senate President Bill Ferguson.
“She's a person who doesn't just have a clear vision as to what Maryland can be, and why Maryland is so special, but understands how to work the levers in order to ensure that we're getting the resources that we need, that we're getting the supports that we need,” said Gov. Wes Moore, who also endorsed her. “She has a history and track record of showing it in Prince George's County, and I think she would do a remarkable job for the whole state.”
State Sen. Antonio Hayes, who represents West Baltimore in Annapolis, said he has been impressed while on the campaign trail with Alsobrooks. He described going with her to an event with her last month.
“I was walking around the room, and I was trying to get to every table, but I didn't realize we had missed a table, and she's like, hold on, we've missed some people, and we doubled back just to say hello to those people,” he said. “She's that type of person. She wants to make sure everyone feels special — everyone is touched.”
