CHICAGO — Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee in Maryland’s Senate race, tethered herself to Vice President Kamala Harris during her prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night.
Alsobrooks, a longtime ally of the vice president, praised Harris’s record as a district attorney in San Francisco during her remarks and touted Harris’s creation of the “Back on Track” program in California – a program that Alsobrooks said she replicated in Maryland with Harris’s help.
The program provides nonviolent offenders the opportunity to get job training, help getting their GED, and apprenticeships.
The Maryland Democrat, who has held a 14-year friendship with Harris, called the vice president a “friend, a mentor, and a role model.” Alsobrooks explained during her speech that she first heard about Harris while reading a magazine article in 2009 as she was running for Prince George’s County state’s attorney’s office.
“I read a story in Essence magazine about a district attorney in San Francisco using new ideas to keep her community safe. Few had a better record prosecuting crime,” Alsobrooks said. “She put rapists, child molesters, and murderers behind bars.”
She continued, “After reading about this super-bad district attorney, I talked non-stop about her on the campaign trail. Two days after I won the election, my phone rings. It’s Kamala Harris, calling to congratulate me and ask how could help.”
Alsobrooks’s touting of her friendship with Harris, as well as her past as a state’s attorney, comes as she is engaged in a competitive Senate race with former Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
While speaking to reporters ahead of Alsobrooks’s speech, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) called the Senate candidate “talented” and “passionate,” but conceded that she needs to be “better known in the state” if she hopes to win her race.
“This gives her a platform to let people know about who she is, what makes her tick, and what she’s passionate about. I’m confident she’s going to do an outstanding job and that’ll help her in her race for Maryland.”
Harris and Alsobrooks have appeared together on the campaign trail in Maryland a couple of times, and Alsobrooks also attended Harris’s first joint appearance with President Joe Biden since Harris secured the Democratic nomination last week.
“I want to recognize your next United States senator Angela Alsobrooks,” Harris said while recognizing Maryland’s leaders present at the event. “I’ve worked with her over the years, I’m telling you Maryland, you’re going to do a great thing when you send her to the United States Senate.”
In her Tuesday night speech, Alsobrooks also attacked former President Donald Trump, saying that “ever since Donald Trump rode down that ridiculous escalator, we as a nation have been trapped.”
“We are still frozen by the fear that Donald Trump might once again come to power,” she continued. “Kamala has reminded us that we don’t need to fear anything. Not the future, and certainly not that man.
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Alsobrooks, who would be the nation’s third black senator if she wins her race, ended her speech with an appeal to black Americans and women voters.
“For the ancestors who sat at lunch counters and made sure that we all had the right to vote, we are not going back. For the mothers and grandmothers who marched to make sure that women could control our own bodies, we are not going back.”
“We know that we can endure for a night because joy cometh in the morning. Morning is coming. And that joy is Kamala Harris,” Alsobrooks concluded.