Angela Alsobrooks facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Angela Alsobrooks
Alsobrooks in 2024
United States Senator-elect from Maryland
Assuming office January 3, 2025
Succeeding	Ben Cardin
8th Executive of Prince George's County
Incumbent
Assumed office December 3, 2018
Preceded by	Rushern Baker
State's Attorney of Prince George's County
In office January 3, 2011 – December 3, 2018
Preceded by	Glenn Ivey
Succeeded by	Aisha Braveboy
Personal details
Born	Angela Deneece Alsobrooks (1971-02-23) February 23, 1971 (age 53) Suitland, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Children	1
Education	Duke University (BA) University of Maryland, Baltimore (JD)
Signature

Angela Deneece Alsobrooks (born February 23, 1971) is an American lawyer who is a United States Senator-elect from Maryland and the county executive of Prince George's County, Maryland. She is the first female county executive of Prince George's County and the first Black female county executive in Maryland history. A member of the Democratic Party, Alsobrooks served two terms as the county's state's attorney from 2010 to 2018.

Born and raised in Prince George's County, Alsobrooks graduated from Duke University and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She began her career as an attorney for local firms before becoming involved in county government as a domestic violence prosecutor and appointed official in county executive Jack B. Johnson's administration. She was elected state's attorney of Prince George's County in 2010 and reelected in 2014. Alsobrooks has served as Prince George's County Executive since 2018; she defeated former U.S. representative Donna Edwards in the 2018 Democratic primary election and ran unopposed in the general election. Alsobrooks was reelected in 2022.

Alsobrooks ran for the U.S. Senate in 2024 to replace retiring Senator Ben Cardin. She defeated U.S. Representative David Trone in the Democratic primary and won the general election against former Republican governor Larry Hogan, becoming Maryland's first African-American senator and the third African-American woman elected as senator of any U.S. state. She will also be the second woman to represent Maryland in the Senate, after Barbara Mikulski. Alsobrooks is to be sworn in on January 3, 2025.

Early life and career

Early life and education

Alsobrooks was born to James Alsobrooks, who worked as a distributor for The Washington Post and a car salesman, and Patricia Alsobrooks (née James), a receptionist. Her family moved from Seneca, South Carolina to Maryland in July 1956 shortly after her great-grandfather, J. C. James, was shot and killed by police officer Charles Lee while resisting arrest. Lee was not charged in James's death after a coroner's jury found that he had acted in self-defense after the two began to scuffle as Lee attempted to arrest James for creating a disturbance. Alsobrooks has said that her surname is of West African or Native American origin.

Alsobrooks was raised in Camp Springs, Maryland, and attended Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, D.C. She earned her bachelor's degree in public policy and Afro-American studies at Duke University in 1993, and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1996. After she was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1996, Alsobrooks clerked for law firms DLA Piper and DeCaro, Doran, and for Circuit Court Judges William D. Quarles Jr. and Donna Hill Staton until 1997, when she began working as an assistant state's attorney in Prince George's County, where she was assigned to handle domestic violence cases. She left the state's attorney office in 2002 to become education liaison for Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson. In 2003, she was appointed executive director of the county revenue authority.

Early career

Alsobrooks first got involved in politics while serving as the president of her high school's student government. She later worked as an intern for House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Alsobrooks attended the 1992 Democratic National Convention as an intern to the Congressional Black Caucus and volunteered for Democratic nominee Bill Clinton's presidential campaign after returning from it. In 2000, she worked on the presidential campaign of Vice President Al Gore. In 2008, Alsobrooks ran for delegate to the Democratic National Convention, pledged to U.S. Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. She supported Democratic nominee Barack Obama following the convention.

Alsobrooks became involved with electoral politics in 2009, when she filed to run for Prince George's state's attorney after reading a profile of District Attorney of San Francisco Kamala Harris in Essence Magazine, soon after reading her book Smart on Crime. Harris supported Alsobrooks's campaign for state's attorney.

Prince George's State's Attorney

Alsobrooks as Prince George's County State's Attorney in 2015

Alsobrooks was first elected Prince George's state's attorney in 2010 and reelected in 2014. She is the first woman and youngest person to serve as state's attorney in county history. During her first election, Alsobrooks ran with the support of Maryland Secretary of Aging Gloria G. Lawlah, county executives Wayne K. Curry and Jack B. Johnson, and incumbent state's attorney Glenn Ivey, and ran on a slate with former state delegate Rushern Baker.

As state's attorney, Alsobrooks took what was seen as a tough-on-crime approach while also supporting a rehabilitative approach for juveniles in the criminal justice system. During her time in office, the violent crime rate in the county declined by 50%, in line with national trends. Alsobrooks also increased prosecutions for car break-ins, vandalism, and burglaries, and personally prosecuted Richmond Phillips, who was sentenced to life without parole for killing his mistress and their daughter; and Daron Boswell-Johnson, who was sentenced to two life sentences after killing his two-year-old daughter and her mother. She supported initiatives by county executive Rushern Baker to concentrate government resources in communities struggling with social problems and to take control of the Prince George's County school system, which she accredited to a decrease in crime in the county. She also created a Special Prosecutions Unit within her office to handle economic crimes, public corruption, and police misconduct cases.

Alsobrooks sought and secured funding to increase the number of attorneys in the office and increased conviction rates. She also divided her office's prosecutors into the county's six police districts to handle cases specific to each region, and concentrated on addressing quality-of-life concerns, discouraging truancy, and increasing social services. Alsobrooks worked with California Attorney General Kamala Harris to implement a program to reduce recidivism in Prince George's County, mirroring the "Back on Track" program introduced by Harris in California.

Alsobrooks served as a 2016 Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Hillary Clinton.

Prince George's County Executive

Elections

2018

Alsobrooks announced her intention to run for county executive on July 28, 2017. Her platform included increasing education funding, expanding the commercial tax base, and improving public safety by increasing police hires. During the primary, Alsobrooks was endorsed by The Washington Post, U.S. senator Chris Van Hollen, U.S. representatives Anthony Brown and Steny Hoyer, and numerous labor unions. Alsobrooks won the Democratic primary election with 61.8% of the vote, defeating eight other candidates, including former Congresswoman Donna Edwards and state senator C. Anthony Muse. She faced Republican Jerry Mathis in the general election, who later dropped out and endorsed Alsobrooks on August 29, 2018, allowing her to run without any formal opposition and earning 98.9% of the vote in the general election.

2022

Alsobrooks was seen as a possible candidate for the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, but she instead chose to run for re-election as county executive in 2022. She endorsed Wes Moore in the Democratic primary on March 5, 2022, which was later described as "the most vital endorsement" for Moore's campaign. In November 2022, following Moore's win in the general election, Alsobrooks was named as a co-chair on the transition teams of both Moore and Comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman.

Tenure

Alsobrooks being sworn in as county executive, 2018

Alsobrooks was sworn in on December 3, 2018, becoming the first woman to be elected county executive for Prince George's County as well as the first Black woman to serve as county executive in Maryland.

In July 2019, Alsobrooks traveled to Detroit, Michigan to lend moral support to Kamala Harris during one of the televised presidential debates, bringing her teenage daughter along. In May 2020, Alsobrooks was named co-chair of the Maryland Women for Biden group, alongside State House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, State Senate President Pro Tem Melony G. Griffith, and Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis. She was a delegate pledged to Biden at the 2020 Democratic National Convention and later attended the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. Alsobrooks spoke at and served as a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, pledged to Harris.

During her tenure as county executive, Alsobrooks faced criticism from Latino officials for not appointing a single person of Hispanic descent to her 39-member cabinet, despite Latinos making up 21.2% of the county's population. In statements to The Washington Post, she acknowledged that more could be done to include Latinos in her government, and members of her office said that the administration often does not receive Latino applicants for appointable positions. Following this criticism, Alsobrooks appointed Manuel Castillo as chief information security officer, created the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and made Spanish translations of county documents more accessible, and later claimed that Latino representation in the county's workforce had increased from 6% to 23% during her tenure.

COVID-19 pandemic

Alsobrooks (center) tours the Six Flags America mass vaccination site with Governor Larry Hogan, 2021

On March 9, 2020, Alsobrooks announced that Prince George's County had recorded its first case of COVID-19. She soon ordered the closing of all county buildings and opened the first COVID-19 testing site in the county at FedExField on March 27, 2020. Prince George's was the Maryland county hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 74,704 total cases and 1,317 deaths in the county by March 2021.

In April 2020, Alsobrooks praised the Hogan administration for its acquisition of 500,000 test kits from South Korea through Operation Enduring Friendship, later requesting 90,000 of these test kits for Prince George's County residents. In May 2020, as hospitalizations began to plateau statewide, Alsobrooks expressed concern with the state's potential plans to begin easing some COVID-19-related restrictions, citing health department reports showing that the county was still dealing with a surge in COVID-19 patients. Later that month, Alsobrooks provided $8 million for a county rent assistance program to assist individuals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She also joined almost every other county executive in sending a letter to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan warning that their jurisdictions "lack sufficient resources" to take steps to reopen in the weeks ahead. Alsobrooks announced on May 28, 2020, that the county would begin its "incremental opening", and would form a "Prince George's Forward" task force to help the county recover from the pandemic going forward. The county entered its second phase of reopening on June 15, 2020.

In July 2020, following an increase in cases in the county, Alsobrooks created the COVID-19 Ambassador Compliance Team to make sure establishments followed the county's COVID-19-related restrictions. As cases continued to increase, she initially declined to implement any new restrictions before setting a 50-person limit on social gatherings the following day. In September 2020, Alsobrooks declined to move into phase three of reopening, pointing out that 13 ZIP codes in the county had a positivity rate of five percent or higher. In November 2020, Alsobrooks announced new capacity limits at bars, gyms, and restaurants in Prince George's County amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.

In January 2021, Alsobrooks announced that the county health department would cancel any vaccination appointments scheduled after February 9 as part of a "reset" after noticing that people from neighboring counties were crossing into Prince George's to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In February 2021, she launched a "Proud to be Protected" campaign with local hospitals and non-profits to tackle vaccine misinformation and encourage residents to get vaccinated, and later joined statewide efforts to do the same. In May 2021, Alsobrooks lifted most of the county's COVID-19 restrictions, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases. She also joined local leaders in sending a letter to Governor Hogan encouraging him to impose a temporary statewide eviction moratorium to give local jurisdictions more time to set up rent relief programs. In August 2021, Alsobrooks reinstated the county's indoor mask mandate following an increase in COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant. The county's mask mandate was lifted on February 28, 2022.

2024 U.S. Senate campaign

Alsobrooks's 2024 U.S. Senate campaign logo

On May 9, 2023, Alsobrooks announced her candidacy in the 2024 election for the U.S. Senate from Maryland. If elected, Alsobrooks will become the first Black senator from Maryland, the first woman to represent Maryland in Congress since Barbara Mikulski's and Donna Edwards's retirements in 2017, and the third Black woman ever elected to the Senate.

During the Democratic primary, Alsobrooks ran on a platform emphasizing "kitchen-table" issues, such as community safety and health care, while also focusing on her political career as a prosecutor and county executive. She also campaigned heavily in the Baltimore metropolitan area, which was viewed as a key battleground area in the primary and general elections. She was viewed by media outlets as an early frontrunner, receiving several high-profile endorsements from the Maryland Democratic political establishment early into her candidacy, including from Chris Van Hollen, Steny Hoyer, Wes Moore, and multiple state legislators and county executives.

The Democratic primary quickly developed into a contest between money and endorsements, with Alsobrooks receiving the most individual donations while her closest competitor, David Trone, largely self-financed his campaign with $61.7 million and outspent Alsobrooks 10-to-1 as of May 2024. Trone utilized his self-funding ability to run a heavy media blitz across the state, overwhelming the Alsobrooks campaign and its resources, which looked to form fundraising alliances with high visibility supporters. As a result, the Alsobrooks campaign employed campaign events to meet with potential supporters directly and waited until the final weeks of the Democratic primary to run a slew of advertisements introducing her to voters, touting her achievements in office, and promoting her endorsements.

Alsobrooks trailed Trone in opinion polls for most of the primary, but enjoyed a surge of support in its final weeks as voters finally tuned in and Trone's campaign suffered from various gaffes he had made on the campaign trail. She won the Democratic primary on May 14, 2024, with 54% of the vote. Her support largely came from the state's most populous and urban counties, especially in her home base of Prince George's County, while Trone's support came mostly from Maryland's rural areas and Frederick County. Alsobrooks faced former governor Larry Hogan in the general election. She scrutinized Hogan's legislative record and sought to associate him with former President Donald Trump. She led Hogan in general-election polling, but by a smaller margin than Democrats usually have in Maryland. Alsobrooks defeated Hogan on November 5, receiving about 52% of the vote in the general election.

When Alsobrooks resigns as county executive to become a senator, the county's chief administrative officer, Tara H. Jackson, will become the acting county executive until a successor is elected. A spokesperson for Alsobrooks said in November 2024 that she has not decided when she will step down. If she resigns before December 5, a special election will be held to replace her as county executive in early 2025. If she leaves after that date, the Prince George's County Council will select one of its members to become interim county executive; if the county council reaches a deadlock or does not elect a successor within 14 days of the resignation, the council president will become the county executive. If a special election is held, people who have declared their candidacy for county executive include county council president Jolene Ivey, state's attorney Aisha Braveboy, at-large councilmember Calvin Hawkins, and former county executive Rushern Baker. Maryland Treasurer Dereck E. Davis has also been mentioned as a potential candidate.

Political positions

COVID-19 pandemic

On March 9, 2020, Alsobrooks announced that Prince George's County had recorded its first case of COVID-19. Alsobrooks opened the first COVID-19 testing site in the county at FedExField on March 27, 2020. Prince George's County was the county hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 27 percent of the state's known cases and 24 percent of the confirmed deaths by April 2020.

In May 2020, Alsobrooks expressed caution about the state's potential plans to begin easing some COVID-19-related restrictions, saying "We'll do what we can. But we're going to also make decisions that are specific and tailored to the challenges that we have met here in Prince George's, because we already know this virus has impacted us in a unique way". Later that month, Alsobrooks joined almost every other county executive in sending a letter to Governor Larry Hogan warning that their jurisdictions "lack sufficient resources" to take the steps to fully reopen in the weeks ahead. Alsobrooks announced on May 28, 2020, that the county would begin its "incremental opening", and would form a "Prince George's Forward" task force to help the county recover from the pandemic going forward. In November 2020, Alsobrooks announced new capacity limits at bars, gyms, and restaurants in Prince George's County amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.

In January 2021, Alsobrooks announced that the county health department would cancel any vaccination appointments scheduled after February 9 as part of a "reset" after noticing that people from neighboring counties were crossing into Prince George's to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In February 2021, she launched a "Proud to be Protected" campaign with local hospitals and non-profits to tackle vaccine misinformation and encourage residents to get vaccinated, and later joined statewide efforts to do the same. In May 2021, Alsobrooks joined local leaders in sending a letter to Gov. Hogan encouraging him to impose a temporary statewide eviction moratorium to give local jurisdictions more time to set up rent relief programs. In August 2021, Alsobrooks re-instated the county's indoor mask mandate following an increase in COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant. The county's mask mandate was lifted on February 28, 2022.

Development initiatives

During her campaign, Alsobrooks said she would "work with the owners of the Redskins as well as with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan" to keep the Redskins stadium in Prince George's County. She also opposed a proposal to build a maglev train connecting Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, describing the proposal as "outright disrespect to Prince George's County" and a "discourteous project". In 2019, Alsobrooks stayed neutral on Gov. Hogan's proposal to take control of the federally-controlled Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm to build a new stadium for the Redskins, saying that while the Redskins are a valued enterprise, she would not be willing to take funds from other higher priorities, such as education, public safety, health care and economic development, to keep the team from moving away. In 2021, Alsobrooks proposed developing a year-round sports and entertainment venue near FedExField as an incentive to keep the Washington Football Team in Maryland.

In February 2019, Alsobrooks introduced legislation to increase transparency on state road upkeep by publishing state schedules for upholding maintenance on state medians and litter pickup.

In May 2021, Alsobrooks sent a letter to Acting Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose and Maryland Transportation Secretary Greg Slater to voice their opposition to the D.C.–Baltimore maglev proposal, arguing that the construction would "tear through environmentally sensitive areas and that the 311-mile-an-hour train would cause vibrations and hurt property values". In late 2021, Alsobrooks launched programs to preserve and construct mixed-use development around the Blue Line and Purple Line projects.

Education

During her county executive campaign, Alsobrooks said that her administration would increase investment in pre-K education, career and technology education, and infrastructure improvement projects within the county's schools, with the goal of achieving universal pre-K for every child. In 2019, Alsobrooks announced that Prince George's County would use public-private partnerships to build and maintain several of the county's schools, making it the first jurisdiction in the United States to do so. In 2020, Alsobrooks testified in favor of legislation that would allow the Maryland Stadium Authority to issue up to $2.2 billion in bonds to pay for school construction projects.

In January 2021, Alsobrooks appointed former state delegate Juanita Miller as chair of the Prince George's County Board of Education. After ethics charges were filed against almost all members of the Prince George's Board of Education in August 2021, Alsobrooks asked the state's top school officials to "immediately" investigate the allegations. The Maryland State Board of Education said it was unable to review the ethics allegations made against the school board members, saying that the report is confidential "until accepted by the local board of education". In June 2022, Alsobrooks asked Miller to resign from the school board after the Maryland State Board of Education made public two charges against her.

In September 2021, Alsobrooks wrote to Gov. Hogan to express concern that none of the nominees to the state's education reform panel lived in Prince George's County. The panel refused requests to reopen applications, waiting for clarity from the Attorney General of Maryland.

In February 2022, Alsobrooks asked the Maryland General Assembly to pass legislation to allow the Prince George's County school board to return to an all-elected school board, with nine members elected by district and one student member.

Minimum wage

In 2019, Alsobrooks endorsed legislation in the Maryland General Assembly to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023, saying "[n]o one jurisdiction can achieve this on its own, because unless each city and county adopts the $15 minimum wage, it will not be a viable solution".

National politics

Alsobrooks opposed the 2018–2019 government shutdown, calling it "wicked" and referring to President Donald Trump as "ruthless". In July 2019, Alsobrooks traveled to Detroit, Michigan to lend moral support to Kamala Harris during one of the televised presidential debates, bringing her teenage daughter along. In May 2020, Alsobrooks was named co-chair of the Maryland Women for Biden group, alongside State House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, State Senate President Pro Tem Melony G. Griffith, and Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis.

Policing

In June 2020, Alsobrooks announced that the county would forgo expanding its police training facility, instead funding a $20 million public health facility to treat mental health and addiction. In July 2020, she established a Police Reform Task Force to come up with recommendations on public police reform. In February 2021, Alsobrooks announced that the county would implement the reforms recommended by the task force, including updates to the department's use of force policy and creating a new office of integrity led by an independent inspector general.

Personal life

Alsobrooks has a daughter Alex, born in 2005, whom she raised as a single mother. She owns two homes in Prince George's County, including a townhouse in Upper Marlboro, and previously owned a home in northeast Washington, D.C. from 2005 to 2018. She is a congregant at First Baptist Church of Glenarden. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and is active in promoting breast cancer awareness. Her second cousin is Leslie Gray Streeter, a columnist for The Baltimore Banner.

Alsobrooks was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when she was eight years old, which led to her attending youth theater programs at Howard University. Her daughter also has ADHD.

Alsobrooks is a fan of the Washington Commanders.

In September 2024, CNN reported that Alsobrooks had improperly benefited from tax breaks she did not qualify for, including one meant for low-income senior citizens, allowing her to save nearly $14,000 in taxes on a property she owned in northeast Washington, D.C. between 2005 and 2017. She also saved at least $2,600 in taxes on a townhouse she owned in Prince George's County after applying for a homestead exemption in 2008. She later began to rent out the property while still taking the homestead exemption, violating state and local tax relief requirements. D.C. tax officials later determined that Alsobrooks owed the district $47,580 in property taxes. Alsobrooks's Senate campaign told CNN that she paid the mortgage of her grandmother's home in northeast Washington until it was sold in 2018 and was unaware of any tax credits attached to the property, and later told The Washington Post that she would pay back any taxes that should have been applied to the properties. As of October 2024, Alsobrooks has paid back the tax credit and is working to pay off the interest. The New York Times later obtained mortgage documents that show Alsobrooks attesting that she would live in the D.C. property for at least a year—she never did, instead using it as a rental property, making her ineligible for the homestead exemption she received.

Electoral history