“She is a leader who always stands up for principles and for the people of Maryland,” Harris said, emphasizing that Alsobrooks would be an important ally to the Biden-Harris administration in a possible second term.
The Biden-Harris administration created a White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, implemented new rules to slow the proliferation of ghost guns, and closed a loophole that bypassed background checks in sales outside traditional gun stores like those that take place at gun shows and flea markets. Harris said those advances would be at risk if voters cede the presidency or control of the Senate to Republicans. She criticized former president Donald Trump for cutting funding to gun violence prevention programs and overseeing an administration that saw a substantial increase in murders in 2020, with more than three-quarters involving guns.
“Maryland, you have the power to elect leaders that have actually kept our communities safe,” Harris said.
The rally prompted criticism from Alsobrooks’s opponent, Republican Senate nominee Larry Hogan, the former governor with his own record to defend.
While Hogan drew days of national attention to the Senate race for provoking Trump-world ire, Harris’s appearance on Friday focused a spotlight on both Senate candidates.
Several high profile Maryland Democrats, including Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Glenn F. Ivey, and Comptroller Brooke Lierman spoke at the campaign rally, which focused primarily on Democratic proposals to combat gun violence in Maryland and across the United States by banning assault weapon sales and strengthening background checks. They slammed Republicans for bowing to pressure from the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers. Some placed blame at Hogan’s feet.
Moore, a rising Democratic star who promised to be a behind-the-scenes advocate and public surrogate for Alsobrooks, took the stage to critique his predecessor’s record on gun violence.
“We saw veto pens instead of decisive action,” Moore said.
Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he needs a partner to join him in the senate to combat pressure from the gun industry and activists from the National Rifle Association.
“We need someone who is going to get a failing grade from the NRA,” he said.
Hogan’s record on gun control is mixed: He earned an “A-” rating from the National Rifle Association during his 2014 bid for governor, but four years later refused to take money from the influential gun-rights group nor seek their support, eventually getting downgraded to a “C.”
While in office, he supported laws that banned bump stocks and revoked gun ownership from people deemed by courts a threat to themselves and others. That legislation passed during his first term in response to the Parkland high school shooting and the massacre at a Las Vegas music concert. But he vetoed other measures popular with Democrats who dominate the legislature and the electorate, sometimes on grounds that had little to do with gun control.
On Friday, he challenged Alsobrooks’s record on crime, saying in a statement that “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.”
He put out a 10-point plan last month, in which he said “we have to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.” In that plan, he suggested more funding for prosecutors, stiffer sentences for violent offenders, so-called “red flag” laws that support stripping gun rights from people judges deem dangerous and “universal background checks,” among other proposals. He said law enforcement is subject to “unreasonable requirements” and too much federal funding is tied to political agendas.
“Governor 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,” Hogan’s campaign said on X.
At Friday’s rally, which was held on Gun Violence Awareness Day, Alsobrooks and Harris recounted how they have inspired and supported each other as they both made history in their careers as women of color in law enforcement roles and elected offices.
“She’s been helping me all along the way,” Alsobrooks said.
Alsobrooks and her allies at the event sought to distinguish her campaign by emphasizing the successes of her political career, including the 50 percent drop in violent crime during her tenure as a state’s attorney for Prince George’s County.
They also reiterated again and again what was at stake in the race: control of the Senate.
“It has become the case that the path to the majority runs through Maryland,” Alsobrooks said.