Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic Prince George’s County executive, has easily defeated former Gov. Larry Hogan to become Maryland’s first Black senator, according to The Associated Press, holding a crucial seat for her party as it grasps to keep the Senate majority.
The victory was an important win for Democrats in the first competitive Senate race in deep-blue Maryland in decades.
Ms. Alsobrooks, 53, the top official in a majority-Black Maryland county in the D.C. suburbs, will become only the second woman to represent the state in the Senate.
Maryland’s congressional delegation is currently all male. Ms. Alsobrooks will succeed Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, who is retiring after three terms at the age of 81.
Along with Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, who has also won her Senate bid, Ms. Alsobrooks will be part of the first pair of Black female senators to serve in the chamber at the same time. They will be the fourth and fifth Black women to serve there in history, after Carol Moseley Braun, Kamala Harris and Laphonza Butler.
Ms. Alsobrooks said her top priority in office would be working to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, and pursuing legislation to try to create economic opportunity for Marylanders.
Mr. Hogan, 68, the popular former two-term governor who has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald J. Trump, was the prized recruit of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. He toiled to distance himself from Mr. Trump and the Republican Party brand and appeal to Democratic voters as a pragmatist who would work across party lines.
But Ms. Alsobrooks and national Democrats sought to tie him to the G.O.P. and its hard-right agenda. She raised nearly three times as much money as Mr. Hogan, and prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, cut ads for her.
The race was tied in some early polls, but Ms. Alsobrooks opened up a large lead as the state’s heavily Democratic voter base began to focus on the contest in the weeks before the election.
She centered her pitch on maintaining control of the Senate for Democrats, making the case that a vote for Mr. Hogan would hand the chamber to the Republicans and allow the G.O.P. to install conservative judges and dictate a right-wing legislative agenda.
Ms. Alsobrooks and Mr. Hogan had been allies before entering the race for Senate. They previously worked together extensively, praising each other and even attending each other’s inaugurations. But the contest became negative, with both camps trying to portray the other as unethical on financial issues.
Conservative groups rallied to Mr. Hogan’s side, spending more than $20 million to attack Ms. Alsobrooks.
Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, who is seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, campaigned for Ms. Alsobrooks in the final weeks.
“I don’t care what the commercials from out-of-town billionaires say,” Mr. Moore said at a recent stop in Montgomery County in the D.C. suburbs. “Do not believe them. They are not true.”
A former prosecutor, Ms. Alsobrooks was the state’s attorney in Prince George’s County before she won the county executive seat.
She defeated Representative David Trone, a wealthy businessman, in the Democratic primary, despite being outspent nearly 10-to-1.
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