Angela Alsobrooks Clinches Democratic Senate Nod Against $61 Million Self-Funder

Angela Alsobrooks, a county executive from the Washington, D.C., suburbs, is projected to win Maryland’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination against Rep. David Trone, a liquor store magnate who spent more than $61 million of his fortune trying to beat her.

The outcome is stunning considering that Trone, the founder of Total Wine & More, outspent the Prince George’s County executive 7 to 1, blanketing the TV airwaves with more than two dozen unique ads in the months leading up to the primary.

If elected in November, Alsobrooks would be the first Black woman to join the U.S. Senate from Maryland. The Senate currently has only one Black woman, Democrat Laphonza Butler of California, who is serving out the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term and leaving Washington at the end of the year.

Democrats have the chance to add two Black women to the Senate with November’s election — Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, who is running unopposed for the nomination to succeed retiring Democrat Tom Carper in a safely blue seat.

But Alsobrooks, who is running to replace retiring Democrat Ben Cardin, doesn’t have the same easy route to Congress.

She’ll face former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate who was twice elected in deep-blue Maryland thanks to Democratic crossover votes. Hogan easily won the Republican nomination Tuesday, giving Republicans their best shot at expanding their Senate map to Maryland and flipping control of the chamber.

Hogan’s entry into the race just before the February filing deadline complicated things for Democrats. Practically overnight, Maryland’s Senate contest went from virtually noncompetitive to another endangered seat on the party’s treacherous Senate map.

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