Maryland Senate race: names to know and subjects to center when voting

By Sophie Foster

Opinion Editor

Ben Cardin is retiring from his spot as representative of Maryland in the United States Senate, and it is time for voters in the state to think critically about who they would like to see representing them in the near future.

According to Politico, the race recently morphed into a two-person battle for office after Montgomery County Councilman Will Jawando bowed out last month. This reduces the competition to the two most prominent contenders: Representative David Trone and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

Both candidates are running in the Democratic primaries, and in a state where no Republican candidate has made it to the Senate in several decades, it is likely that whichever of these two

most popular candidates wins their party’s favor will have an easy time earning their victory in the general election in 2024.

According to his campaign website, Trone, who currently serves as a representative in Maryland’s sixth congressional district, is running on the issues of “the opioid epidemic, criminal justice reform, mental health, and funding for medical research.”

Meanwhile, Alsobrooks is running “to be a voice for families like the ones she grew up with and who she’s worked for throughout her life,” according to her campaign website.

Alsobrooks prioritizes job creation, educational investment, healthcare expansion, mental health and addiction treatment, and youth outreach.

According to Politico, Trone “is a three-term congressman…and the uber-wealthy founder of alcohol and spirits chain Total Wine & More. Trone has the ability to self-fund his campaign and has already spent more than $6 million in advertising, according to AdImpact data.”

Alsobrooks was the first full-time Assistant State’s Attorney to manage domestic violence cases in Prince George’s County and the the youngest and first woman to be elected Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, according to her campaign website. She would be the state’s first senator of color and boasts support from Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Kweisi Mfume.

While neither candidate is ahead of the other in any deeply substantial way, Alsobrooks has taken impressive strides to make herself known as a candidate of value.

Maryland deserves a new senator that is capable of representing constituents as accurately as possible, and Alsobrooks, in contrast to the white and wealthy Trone, stands a better chance of achieving that style of representation in public office.

Nearly half of all Marylanders are not white, according to the census, meaning half the state’s population never had a senator that looks like them on the floor. Addtionally, according to WBAL, Maryland ranks second-highest in education in the country, an issue that Alsobrooks has committed herself to and done significant work in the arena of.

Now is the time for constituents in Maryland to seek out a senator they feel represented by.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Photo caption: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is a top contender for Maryland’s open seat in the U.S. Senate.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *