LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that more must be done at the federal level to prevent gun violence during a campaign stop in Maryland in support of Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat whose U.S. Senate race will leave control of the room could determine. .
Harris spoke at the 10th annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day and marked the occasion by underscoring the need to pass more laws to stop gun violence. The vice president also highlighted the experience of her longtime friend, who worked as both a state prosecutor and general manager in Prince George’s County, on the outskirts of the capital.
“Maryland, this November you have the power to elect a leader who has actually kept our community safe,” Harris said of Alsobrooks, whose campaign is critical to Democrats maintaining control of the Senate.
Alsobrooks defeated U.S. Rep. David Trone last month after the congressman spent about $62 million of his personal fortune to self-finance his campaign. Now she is in a competitive race against popular Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan for a Senate seat that begins with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat.
A Republican has not won a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in more than four decades, in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 statewide. But Hogan is running the most competitive Senate race for the state’s Republican Party in decades.
Alsobrooks would become Maryland’s first black U.S. senator and the nation’s third black woman elected to the Senate. Harris was the second Black woman elected to the chamber.
Alsobrooks said she would support legislation for universal background checks, a ban on military-style assault weapons and combating illegal firearms trafficking.
The district executive, who noted that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., also said she would not shy away from holding gun manufacturers accountable “for the immense harm they have caused to our state and our country.”
“And let me be crystal clear: We will not achieve these goals of keeping Americans safe without the majority in the Senate, and I want you to know that it has become the case that the road to the majority runs through Maryland,” Alsobrooks said .
Harris and Alsobrooks spoke at a meeting that included some of Maryland’s leading Democrats, including Gov. Wes Moore and Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
Van Hollen pointed to Hogan’s previous endorsement by the National Rifle Association during his campaign for governor in 2014. The senator also noted that Hogan received an A-minus rating from the NRA.
Hogan, who won enough crossover Democrats to win two terms as governor in heavily blue Maryland, is one of former President Donald Trump’s sharpest Republican critics. But Van Hollen said Hogan’s former NRA rating suggests his politics are closer to Trump than he likes to admit.
“So I know he says there are a lot of differences between him and Donald Trump, but when it comes to this issue, the only difference is that Donald Trump got an A.” Larry Hogan received an A-minus from the NRA,” Van Hollen said.
Hogan later distanced himself from the NRA during his second campaign for governor in 2018, and the organization did not endorse him that year after he signed several gun control measures.
In an AP interview in mid-April, Hogan said he would support a national ban on assault weapons after not opposing a state ban as governor of Maryland.
“I support a ban on assault weapons,” Hogan told The Associated Press. “I support keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. And I’m for universal background checks. We had an assault weapons ban in Maryland, which we enforced.”
In a statement Friday, Hogan’s campaign said: “As Angela Alsobrooks campaigns today, instead of just offering more platitudes, we urge her to tell voters how she will tackle the skyrocketing crime under her watch.” Prince George’s County will address it.”
The Hogan campaign also touted a recently released plan to fight crime, which includes funding law enforcement, taking repeat violent criminals off the streets and taking guns out of the hands of people with mental illnesses and people who have been convicted. for violent crimes.
Democrats hold on to a 51-49 majority in the Senate. They are defending seats in other states that Trump won four years ago.
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Associated Press journalist Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
