Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks enters the race for U.S. Senate

It’s now official.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) released a video Tuesday morning to announce her campaign for U.S. Senate.

The 52-year-old leader of the state’s second-largest jurisdiction joins two other well-known Democrats, Rep. David Trone (D-6th) and Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando (D), in seeking to replace longtime Sen. Ben Cardin, who chose not to seek reelection.

Alsobrooks seeks to become the first woman in the state’s Capitol Hill delegation since 2017, when former Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) retired and Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D) lost in the race to succeed her.

Alsobrooks’ video, posted on Twitter at 9:04 a.m. amassed more than 3,200 views within an hour. It summarizes her background as Prince George’s County’s first woman ever elected as state’s attorney and the first woman and first Black woman ever chosen as county executive.

But she begins the video talking about her great grandfather being murdered by a sheriff’s deputy in 1956 in South Carolina.

“A Black man is accused by a sheriff’s deputy of driving drunk. But when a witness attests to the fact that the driver was experiencing the seizure, the deputy is left embarrassed and vows revenge,” Alsobrooks said in the video. “The deputy confronts the Black man and shoots the man in the stomach, leaving him to die on the side of the road. That man was my great grandfather. And within a few weeks of his murder, my mother, grandmother and great grandmother were also threatened, and were forced to flee South Carolina. Here in Maryland, they found a fresh start. And although my great grandmother had every reason to be bitter, instead, she told me, ‘If you don’t like something, you go farther, and you do better.’”

Alsobrooks also touches on the lack of diversity in the U.S. Senate. Although 25 women are currently in that chamber on Capitol Hill, none are Black women and has only three Black men: Sens. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia).

“There aren’t a lot of people like me in the U.S. Senate. People who live like, who think like, and who look like the people they’re supposed to represent,” she said. “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.”

Jawando announced his intentions to run for Senate last week. He mentioned his work in the state’s biggest jurisdiction “fighting to get rents down, build more affordable housing and take on racial injustice.”

Trone released a television ad Monday to take on the opioid crisis, expand mental health care and reform the criminal justice system.

Those three candidates reside in the state’s top two jurisdictions with the most registered Democratic voters — Prince George’s with about 455,00 and Montgomery with 420,000.

It remains unclear how many other candidates may jump in the open-seat campaign.

Others who are expected to consider the race include U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D), U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-3rd) and Ben Jealous, the party’s 2018 gubernatorial nominee who is currently executive director of the national Sierra Club.

Steven Henry Seuferer, a Democrat, and Moshe Landman, of the Green Party, had previously filed for candidacy with the State Board of Elections.

Jerome Segal, the former University of Maryland lecturer, peace activist and founder of the now-defunct Bread and Roses Party has also announced plans to run. He ran for Senate in 2018, for president in 2020 and for governor last year.

Republican Robin Ficker, the anti-tax activist and perennial candidate, has announced plans to seek the GOP Senate nomination next year.

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