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She was there to speak to a crowd about gun violence on National Gun Violence Awareness Day, but the crowd at a Landover, Maryland, community center really lit up when Vice President Kamala Harris revealed her other reason for Friday’s visit.
“Today, I proudly endorse Angela Alsobrooks for the United States Senate,” Harris said to the cheers of more than 100 people at the Kentland Community Center. “She will be an experienced leader on that issue when she is in the United States Senate and that matters.”
It was Harris’ first event in Maryland this year. Friday also marked the first major campaign event for Alsobrooks after her victory over Rep. David Trone (D-6th) in last month’s Democratic primary.
Alsobrooks, the Democratic Prince George’s County executive, faces a general election race against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who was elected twice in the state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1.
While it was not unexpected, Harris’ endorsement was welcome in the unexpectedly tough race.
“I’m so proud to support her when she was state’s attorney, and to endorse her when he was county executive,” Harris said.
Harris and Alsobrooks have been friends for more than 10 years, dating back to when Harris served as California’s attorney general. They have both spoken out about restorative justice, which holds people accountable who commit crimes, but also works to address the harm caused by a certain offense.
Both support stronger gun laws such as a universal background checks to acquire firearms, a ban on military-style assault rifles and holding gun manufacturers accountable.
“I won’t back down from holding gun manufacturers accountable,” Alsobrooks said. It’s “our right to hold this industry to account for the immense harm that they have caused our state and our country.
“Let me be crystal clear,” she said. “We will not accomplish these goals to keep Americans safe without a Senate majority. It has become the case that the path to the majority runs through Maryland.”
While Alsobrooks would be the first Black person to represent Maryland in the Senate, Harris and other Democrats point to her experience. Alsobrooks was Prince George’s first full-time prosecutor to handle domestic violence cases, the youngest woman elected as the county’s state’s attorney and the first woman elected to be county executive.
During her nearly eight years as state’s attorney, Alsobrooks oversaw a 50% decline in violent crime that matched a national trend.
That was challenged by the Hogan campaign, which issued a statement on the social media platform X, entitled “Hogan Rapid Response” on Friday about crime under Alsobrooks’ tenure. In noted certain percentages of increases in homicides, violent crime and carjackings, but didn’t state where the data comes from, and used the occasion to tout a 10-point crime plan.
“While Angela Alsobrooks is campaigning today, instead of just offering more platitudes, we urge her to tell voters how she will address the skyrocketing crime on her watch in Prince George’s County,” the post said. “Gov. Hogan has put forward a plan to address this out-of-control crime wave by funding law enforcement, taking repeat violent criminals off the streets, and getting guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the mentally ill — and Angela Alsobrooks has not.”
Back in Landover, some people wore orange T-shirts in support of gun violence awareness day and month. Some pinned “Moms Demand Action” buttons on their shirts.
Alex Dillon, 19, of Richmond, Virginia, wore a blue T-shirt for “March for Our Lives,” the youth-led movement that started six years ago after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Its mission: end gun violence.
That’s what brought him out Friday.
“The Biden-Harris ticket is the only ticket that’s going to help prevent gun violence,” said Dillon, a student at American University in D.C. “President Biden has called for an assault weapons ban. (Former) President Donald Trump has said he wants to repeal all these reforms. That’s why I’m here to support the Biden-Harris ticket.”
