136 Facts About Angela Alsobrooks

Angela Deneece Alsobrooks was born on February 23,1971 and is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Maryland.

Angela Alsobrooks is the first female county executive of Prince George's County and the first Black female county executive in Maryland history.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

Angela Alsobrooks was elected state's attorney of Prince George's County in 2010 and reelected in 2014.

Angela Alsobrooks served as Prince George's County Executive from 2018 to 2024; she defeated former US representative Donna Edwards in the 2018 Democratic primary election and ran unopposed in the general election.

Angela Alsobrooks ran for the US Senate in 2024 to replace retiring Senator Ben Cardin.

Angela Alsobrooks defeated US 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 US state.

Angela Alsobrooks is the second woman to represent Maryland in the Senate, after Barbara Mikulski.

Angela Alsobrooks's 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.

Angela Alsobrooks has said that her surname is of West African or Native American origin.

Angela Alsobrooks was raised in Camp Springs, Maryland, and attended Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, DC 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.

Angela Alsobrooks left the state's attorney office in 2002 to become education liaison for Prince George's County Executive Jack B Johnson.

Angela Alsobrooks first got involved in politics while serving as the president of her high school's student government.

Angela Alsobrooks later worked as an intern for House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Angela 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 2008, Angela Alsobrooks ran for delegate to the Democratic National Convention, pledged to US Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Angela Alsobrooks supported Democratic nominee Barack Obama following the convention.

Angela 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.

Angela Alsobrooks was first elected Prince George's state's attorney in 2010 and reelected in 2014.

Angela Alsobrooks is the first woman and youngest person to serve as state's attorney in county history.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

Angela Alsobrooks created a Special Prosecutions Unit within her office to handle economic crimes, public corruption, and police misconduct cases.

Angela Alsobrooks sought and secured funding to increase the number of attorneys in the office and increased conviction rates.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

Angela 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.

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

Angela Alsobrooks announced her intention to run for county executive on July 28,2017.

Angela Alsobrooks's platform included increasing education funding, expanding the commercial tax base, and improving public safety by increasing police hires.

Angela 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.

Angela Alsobrooks 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, Angela Alsobrooks was named as a co-chair on the transition teams of both Moore and Comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman.

Angela 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, Angela 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.

Angela Alsobrooks was a delegate pledged to Biden at the 2020 Democratic National Convention and later attended the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20,2021.

Angela Alsobrooks spoke at and served as a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, pledged to Harris.

Angela Alsobrooks resigned as county executive on December 2,2024, following her election to the US Senate.

On March 9,2020, Angela Alsobrooks announced that Prince George's County had recorded its first case of COVID-19.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

In May 2020, as hospitalizations began to plateau statewide, Angela 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, Angela Alsobrooks provided $8 million for a county rent assistance program to assist individuals affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

Angela 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 July 2020, following an increase in cases in the county, Angela Alsobrooks created the COVID-19 Ambassador Compliance Team to make sure establishments followed the county's COVID-19-related restrictions.

In September 2020, Angela 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, Angela 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, Angela 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 May 2021, Angela Alsobrooks lifted most of the county's COVID-19 restrictions, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

On May 9,2023, Angela Alsobrooks announced her candidacy in the 2024 election for the US Senate from Maryland.

Angela Alsobrooks campaigned heavily in the Baltimore metropolitan area, which was viewed as a key battleground area in the primary and general elections.

Angela Alsobrooks received several high-profile endorsements from the Maryland Democratic political establishment early in 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 Angela Alsobrooks receiving the most individual donations while her closest competitor, David Trone, largely self-financed his campaign with $61.7 million and outspent Angela Alsobrooks 10-to-1 as of May 2024.

Angela Alsobrooks trailed Trone in opinion polls for most of the primary, but had a surge of support in its final weeks as voters tuned in and Trone's campaign suffered from various gaffes he had made on the campaign trail.

Angela Alsobrooks faced former governor Larry Hogan in the general election.

Angela Alsobrooks scrutinized Hogan's legislative record, sought to associate him with former President Donald Trump, and sought to remind voters that a Hogan victory would lead to Republican control of the Senate.

Angela Alsobrooks led Hogan in general-election polling, but by a smaller margin than Democrats usually have in Maryland.

Angela Alsobrooks is 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.

Angela Alsobrooks sought harsh sentences for juveniles who committed violent crimes and supported increasing minimum sentences for people convicted of illegal gun possession, but supported programs to make it easier to get convictions expunged, divert juveniles from the criminal justice system, and help nonviolent drug offenders attend community college or vocational training.

In one of her first cases as state's attorney in February 2011, Angela Alsobrooks sought the death penalty against Darrell Lynn Bellard, who had killed four people, including two children, in Prince George's County.

Angela Alsobrooks did not say whether she supported attempts to place a ballot initiative on the 2014 ballot to overturn the death penalty repeal, but said that she would consider seeking the death penalty if it were available.

In December 2023, Angela Alsobrooks told MoCo360 that she did not support reinstating the death penalty and would support repealing it on the federal level if elected to the Senate.

In 2012, Alsobrooks said she opposed the Maryland Court of Appeals's ruling in Maryland v King, which held that collecting cheek swabs from arrested individuals violates their Fourth Amendment rights.

Angela Alsobrooks supported a bill to increase sentences for crimes committed around minors.

In 2014, after the Maryland General Assembly voted to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Angela Alsobrooks formed a committee to develop a plan on how to handle marijuana-related offenses.

In February 2019, after her political committee conducted a poll asking voters about legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, Angela Alsobrooks said on The Kojo Nnamdi Show that while she did not care how adults used marijuana, she had concerns with how its use could impact kids' development and their ability to get a job.

In November 2016, Angela Alsobrooks spoke in support of a proposed rule prohibiting prosecutors from setting a high bail on poor defendants, arguing that the change would provide equal protection under the law for low-income individuals.

In June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, Angela 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.

Angela Alsobrooks condemned a video showing county police officers throwing down and kicking an individual at a Langley Park gas station as "disgusting" and said the officers involved should be fired, and called for reform of Maryland's Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights.

In July 2020, Angela Alsobrooks established a Police Reform Task Force to come up with recommendations on public police reform.

In February 2021, Angela 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.

In March 2022, after crime in Prince George's County had hit a 15-year high, Angela Alsobrooks proposed a $57 million increase in police funding and created a task force to intervene in and prevent violent crimes among juveniles.

In June 2023, Angela Alsobrooks issued her first-ever veto to an amendment to the county's $5.4 billion budget, which increased funding for the county's Emerging Adults Program, a program to reduce recidivism in young people, by $250,000.

Angela Alsobrooks said her decision to veto the youth program funding was "strictly a budget decision", explaining that she had to optimize spending while not raising taxes as the county dealt with a potential $60 million budget shortfall.

In 2019, Angela Alsobrooks stayed neutral on Governor Larry 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, Angela Alsobrooks proposed developing a year-round sports and entertainment venue near FedExField as an incentive to keep the Washington Football Team in Maryland.

Angela Alsobrooks supports relocating the Federal Bureau of Investigation's headquarters in Prince George's County.

In March 2023, Angela Alsobrooks joined Democratic members of Maryland's congressional delegation and Governor Wes Moore in co-signing a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to get involved in the FBI's headquarters selection process.

In February 2023, Angela Alsobrooks signed into law a bill to temporarily cap rent increases at 3 percent.

In October 2024, Angela Alsobrooks praised the passage of a bill to cap rent increases at 6 percent per year or the consumer price index plus three percent, whichever is lower.

In June 2023, Angela Alsobrooks said she opposed a bill to place a two-year moratorium on new townhouse developments in commercial areas and areas surrounding Metro stations, which she claimed would "discourage investment from businesses".

In October 2015, Angela Alsobrooks said she supported a bill that required Prince George's County businesses to provide employees up to seven days of paid sick leave annually.

In 2019, Angela 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".

Angela Alsobrooks opposed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and supported raising the corporate tax rate, describing it as a matter of equity and fairness to middle class Americans, as well as expanding the child tax credit and capping childcare costs for low-income families.

In 2019, Angela 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, Angela 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.

Angela Alsobrooks said she would not raise taxes to fund the Blueprint.

In September 2021, Angela Alsobrooks wrote to Governor Hogan to express concern that none of the nominees to the state's education reform panel lived in Prince George's County.

In January 2021, Angela Alsobrooks appointed former state delegate Juanita Miller as chair of the Prince George's County Board of Education.

In June 2022, Angela Alsobrooks asked Miller to resign from the school board after the Maryland State Board of Education made public two charges against her.

In February 2022, Angela 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.

Angela Alsobrooks expressed support for increasing funding for Title I schools and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In January 2020, Angela Alsobrooks criticized a state law that prohibited Prince George's County politicians from taking contributions from developers with pending projects in the county, calling it "racially biased".

Angela Alsobrooks endorsed two bills to repeal the developer contributions ban partially, which became law later that year.

In July 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Angela Alsobrooks sent a letter to Governor Larry Hogan asking him to provide multiple voting options for the 2020 general election, including mail-in voting and an expansion on in-person voting locations.

Angela Alsobrooks supported expanding the US Supreme Court to thirteen members and imposing term limits on its justices.

Angela Alsobrooks supports eliminating the filibuster to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the Women's Health Protection Act.

Angela Alsobrooks signed an executive order setting a goal for the county to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with 2005, and to achieve net zero by 2045.

Angela Alsobrooks has cited preserving democracy as the most significant foreign policy issue facing the United States.

Angela Alsobrooks opposes sending US troops to fight in the Russo-Ukrainian War or in a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Angela Alsobrooks opposed tariffs the second Trump administration imposed on Canada and Mexico, saying that the uncertainty resulting from the tariffs threatened to upend the US economy and lead to higher consumer prices.

In 2019, Angela Alsobrooks traveled to Israel with other local elected officials on an American Israel Education Foundation trip, during which she met with military officials and Knesset members, and visited the Golan Heights.

In October 2023, Angela Alsobrooks expressed support for Israel in the Gaza war and spoke out against hate crimes against Jewish and Muslim people.

Angela Alsobrooks later expressed support for a ceasefire in the war alongside the release of hostages held by Hamas, and argued that the US should withhold its offensive weaponry to Israel if it invades Rafah.

Angela Alsobrooks has described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a dictator and a tyrant, and expressed frustration with Republican efforts to hold up bills providing military assistance to Ukraine.

In February 2025, Angela Alsobrooks criticized President Donald Trump for blaming Ukraine for Russia's invasion and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator, calling it an "asinine statement that makes it clear this president is more interested in helping Putin than standing up for our allies".

Angela Alsobrooks testified in support of the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, a bill restricting firearm purchases and magazine capacity in semi-automatic rifles.

Angela Alsobrooks supported allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of drugs and providing a public health insurance option through Medicare.

Angela Alsobrooks supported raising the cap on Social Security taxes and opposed proposals to raise the Social Security eligibility age.

In May 2024, Angela Alsobrooks signed onto a Maryland Healthcare for All pledge to support legislation to extend Inflation Reduction Act-provided healthcare benefits beyond 2025.

In October 2012, Angela Alsobrooks spoke in support of Question 4, a ballot referendum that sought to approve the Maryland's Dream Act, a bill extending in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants.

In February 2014, Angela Alsobrooks spoke in support of a bill to limit the state's Secure Communities program by requiring Maryland jails to ignore US Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to detain illegal immigrants for up to 48 hours.

In November 2019, Angela Alsobrooks signed the Act Concerning Community Inclusiveness, a bill banning local agencies from cooperating with immigration enforcement.

In June 2019, Angela Alsobrooks signed into law a bill prohibiting county police departments from working with ICE in noncriminal deportation cases.

Angela Alsobrooks supported the Bipartisan Border Security Bill negotiated by Senators James Lankford and Kyrsten Sinema and blamed former President Donald Trump for its failure to pass.

In May 2024, following the jury's guilty verdict in the Trump hush money trial, Angela Alsobrooks expressed support for the US justice system.

In October 2024, Angela Alsobrooks said she supported granting statehood to Washington, DC.

In February 2025, Angela Alsobrooks opposed the US federal deferred resignation program and the Trump administration's efforts to fire and reclassify thousands of federal workers at various agencies, noting that the layoffs would affect Maryland, which is home to about 160,000 federal workers.

Angela Alsobrooks voted for four of Trump's Cabinet nominees, but later pledged to vote against all of his remaining Cabinet-level nominees because of the effect on Maryland of "the witch hunt that this administration has put forward against these civil servants".

Angela Alsobrooks supported the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which legalized same-sex marriage in Maryland in 2012 and supported Question 6.

Angela Alsobrooks criticized the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling in LePage v Center for Reproductive Medicine, which held that frozen embryos had the same rights as children.

Angela Alsobrooks later called on Lisanti to resign from the Maryland House of Delegates.

Angela Alsobrooks opposed a proposal to build a maglev train connecting Washington, DC, to Baltimore, describing the proposal as "outright disrespect to Prince George's County" and a "discourteous project".

In late 2021, Angela Alsobrooks launched programs to preserve and construct mixed-use development around the Blue Line and Purple Line projects.

In July 2023, Angela Alsobrooks said she supported restarting the Red Line in Baltimore.

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

Angela Alsobrooks has a daughter Alex, born in 2005, whom she raised as a single mother.

Angela Alsobrooks owns two homes in Prince George's County, including a townhouse in Upper Marlboro, and previously owned a home in northeast Washington, DC from 2005 to 2018.

Angela Alsobrooks is a congregant at First Baptist Church of Glenarden.

Angela Alsobrooks is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and is active in promoting breast cancer awareness.

Angela Alsobrooks was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when she was eight years old, which led to her attending youth theater programs at Howard University.

In September 2024, CNN reported that Angela 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, DC between 2005 and 2017.

Angela Alsobrooks 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.

Angela Alsobrooks later began to rent out the property while still taking the homestead exemption, violating state and local tax relief requirements.

DC tax officials later determined that Angela Alsobrooks owed the district $47,580 in property taxes.