Maryland Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, left, meets with former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, for the first time Tuesday at a black history museum in Chicago. Photo by Josh Kurtz.
CHICAGO — Prince George’s County Representative Angela Alsobrooks (D) attended her first Democratic National Convention in New York City in 1992.
At the time, she was an intern with the Congressional Black Caucus and was responsible for checking in delegates each night.
But what Alsobrooks remembers most about that experience is hanging around the nearly empty Madison Square Garden for hours before the daily convention sessions began, watching the evening’s speakers practice their addresses. She even caught Aretha Franklin rehearsing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which she performed on one night of the convention.
Early Tuesday morning, Alsobrooks entered the nearly empty United Center for a private microphone check ahead of her convention speech, which she delivered Tuesday night. It was a rare moment of silence for Maryland’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and a rare opportunity to reflect on the political journey she’s been on.
“When I realize that after all these years I’m going to speak from that podium, it’s absolutely incredible,” Alsobrooks said in an interview about six hours before the speech.
It also felt like a turning point in her long career in the public sector.
Alsobrooks’ fight for the open Senate seat against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) was already a big deal — and potentially crucial to control of the closely divided Senate in January. National political strategists and analysts have been watching it closely.
But Alsobrooks’ speech at the convention, which was delivered in prime time and organized by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team, will almost certainly boost Alsobrooks’ visibility nationally.
Maryland already has a historic, charismatic, telegenic Black statewide elected official with a growing national profile — Gov. Wes Moore (D). If Alsobrooks defeats Hogan in November, she will be the runner-up.
But this week, while the high-wattage Moore has been a hot ticket as he’s toured Chicago, speaking to state delegations and countless other groups, Alsobrooks has been in some ways more prominent. Unlike Moore, she’s in this election year’s cycle, and she’s a friend and protégé of Harris, a fellow prosecutor, and she’s aspiring to join her in a very exclusive club of black women to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Is Prince Georgian, 53, ready for the rocket ride she’s about to take? She weighed the question carefully.
“I always knew how important this opportunity was and I hope that’s reflected in the work that I’ve done,” she said, quickly adding, of the Senate campaign, “This is something that has taken more work than anything I’ve ever done.”
Alsobrooks conducted a few brief interviews Tuesday afternoon in the lobby of the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center on the city’s South Side. She was en route to a joint fundraiser with U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), who is heavily favored to win a Senate seat this fall. The event was emceed by two of the only three black women to ever hold a Senate seat: Sen. LaPhonza Butler of California and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. (Harris is the third.)
Alsobrooks first met Moseley Braun when she first started chatting with reporters from Maryland Matters and Essence magazine on Tuesday. Their greeting felt like a slice of history in a building steeped in history, including photos of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Chicago residence in 1966 and an entire room dedicated to Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” Alsobrooks told Moseley Braun, who is 77 and the first black woman ever elected to the Senate, in 1992 — the same year Alsobrooks volunteered at the Democratic convention.
“Thank you for doing this,” replied Moseley Braun, a lifelong resident of the South Side. She then offered to do whatever she could to get Alsobrooks elected. “I am your servant.”
Moseley Braun, a board member of the Black History Museum, quickly drew Alsobrooks’ attention to a plaque in the museum’s lobby honoring Margaret Burroughs, a Chicago writer and artist who founded the cultural institution by raising money for it and convincing Chicago officials to donate the building that houses the museum.
“She took so many hits and she kept coming back,” Moseley Braun explains.
“That’s what happens,” Alsobrooks agreed.
Moseley Braun said she “couldn’t be happier” to meet and mentor Alsobrooks, and offered some advice.
“People don’t understand how much work it takes to represent an entire state,” she said. “You have to reconcile all these competing interests. It’s a big job, but I think you can do it.”
After introducing her 19-year-old daughter Alex to Moseley Braun, Alsobrooks said she takes comfort in the fact that she’s working with Blunt Rochester, who is running for a Senate seat in neighboring Delaware, this election season. She said that while they’ve met a few times in passing, they didn’t have a long conversation until earlier this election cycle, when they went out to lunch.
“It’s so great to have her as a partner running for office,” Alsobrooks said. “There’s so much left unsaid [when they meet]because we have the same experiences.”
Alsobrooks also cheered up when she heard she was being interviewed by an Essence reporter.
“This was of course where I first read about Kamala Harris, in 2009!” she said.
Alsobrooks was a district attorney at the time, preparing to run for Prince George’s County district attorney, and Harris was a district attorney in San Francisco, preparing to run for California attorney general. Alsobrooks said she was enchanted when she read about Harris’s record of advocating for restorative justice initiatives and using data to fight crime.
“Two days after the [2010] election, I was sitting in my office and my phone rang, and it was Kamala Harris,” she recalled. “I was just elated.”
Since then, Harris has been a mentor and trusted advisor to Alsobrooks.
“I am more grateful than I can express,” Alsobrooks said.
‘The joy will be led by Kamala Harris’
Alsobrooks’ convention speech provided more detail about her relationship with Harris and the influence she’s had on her career. But first, she took time to talk about her own family’s humble history.
“People like me with stories like mine don’t usually make it to the United States Senate, but they should,” said Alsobrooks, who described how her grandmother taught herself to type and got a government job even though she couldn’t afford a typewriter.
“She took the test, passed, and got the job she wanted,” Alsobrooks said. “I am her legacy. … I have always been inspired by women like my grandmother, women who imagine a better future and then have the courage to make it happen. One of those women is a friend, a mentor, and a role model. That woman is Kamala Harris.”
Alsobrooks called Harris “this super bad district attorney. I talked about her nonstop during the campaign.”
Alsobrooks then moved away from focusing on Harris’ experience as a prosecutor and instead focused on former President Donald Trump.
“For her, justice for others is not a power struggle — it’s a sacred calling,” she said. “And listen, Kamala Harris knows how to keep criminals off the streets. And in November, with your help, she’ll keep one out of the White House.
“Since Donald Trump went down that ridiculous escalator, we have felt trapped as a nation,” she said. “Every national decision has been made in response to this one man and his extremist MAGA movement. We are still frozen in fear that Donald Trump could rise to power again. And it’s not just our politics that is trapped. It’s our imagination.”
“And then Kamala came along. Kamala reminded us that we have nothing to fear. Not the future and certainly not that man. This is our moment to leave Donald Trump where he belongs: in America’s past.”
Harris, Alsobrooks concluded, will change the tone in America.
“The morning is coming,” she said. “The morning is coming. And that joy will be led by Kamala Harris.”
