Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan shake hands at their debate Thursday at Maryland Public Television in Owings Mills. Photo by Michael Ciesielski Photography/Courtesy of MPT.
Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) stuck relentlessly to their messages Thursday during what is likely to be the lone televised debate of the Maryland Senate election — and each frequently accused the other of misrepresenting their records.
The debate, taped in the afternoon at the studios of Maryland Public Television, was scheduled to air on several area TV stations and other media outlets Thursday evening.
The hourlong telecast perfectly framed the state of the race and the candidates’ desire to define it. Hogan insisted that he can be the same kind of independent operator and seeker of political common ground on Capitol Hill that he was as governor, a posture that produced record high approval ratings for most of his eight-year tenure in a very Democratic state.
“We’re going to hear a lot about Democrat vs. Republican, red vs. blue. All I really care about is the red, white and blue,” he said. “Sending more partisans to Washington is not going to help.”
Hogan said he is running to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D) because he wants to end partisan divisiveness in Washington, D.C., and added: “I’m trying to put people over politics and country over party.”
But Alsobrooks frequently asserted that in a narrowly divided Senate, with most Republicans in thrall to former President Donald Trump, party labels should matter to Maryland voters, regardless of what they might think about Hogan and his time as governor.
Alsobrooks regularly name-checked Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and other Republican senators like Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rick Scott (Fla.). She said that if Hogan was so intent on distancing himself from the GOP, he should have run for Senate as an independent.
Libertarian laments exclusion from Senate TV debate
“He gladly put on the [Republican] jersey,” she said. “When Mitch McConnell called him [to run for Senate], he gladly got into the game.”
Alsobrooks also faulted Hogan for writing in candidates in the past two White House elections and saying he planned to again this year.
On issues ranging from foreign policy to the federal workforce to the future of the U.S. Supreme Court, Alsobrooks sought to define Hogan by the national Republican agenda and the consequences of turning the Senate over to the GOP. But nowhere did she try to delineate the differences between her and Hogan — and his fellow Republicans — more forcefully than on the issue of abortion.
Throughout most of his political career, Hogan has described himself as personally pro-life. But shortly after he entered the Senate race this year, he began identifying as “pro-choice,” and pledged to support legislation restoring the abortion rights protections that were in place under Roe v. Wade, before the Supreme Court overturned that ruling with its Dobbs decision in 2022.
Alsobrooks suggested early in the debate that Hogan’s personal pledges are irrelevant.
“If the Republicans have the majority in the Senate, there will be no vote on Roe,” she said. “He will empower a caucus” that is determined to impose further abortion restrictions.
Hogan replied that he would attempt to sway Republican colleagues on the abortion issue and others.
“Sometimes one voice standing up can really make a difference,” he said.
Alsobrooks also hit Hogan for vetoing legislation in 2022 to expand the number of medical professionals who can perform abortions — Democrats in the legislature overrode the veto — and for delaying state funding for a corresponding training program after the bill became law.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks spoke to reporters Thursday after her debate with Larry Hogan at Maryland Public Television. Photo by William J. Ford.
“There’s no way to make that up,” she said to reporters after the debate. “He withheld funding for abortion care legislation. It’s an undisputed fact.”
Hogan said he vetoed the measure because it allows “non-licensed professionals” such as midwives to perform the procedure.
“A lot of people in the medical community agreed with me,” he said.
Hogan said that in attacking his record on abortion, Alsobrooks was saying “multiple things that are not true.”
“For you to lie about something as important as this issue is insulting,” he said.
With a ballot question to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution favored by 69% of Maryland voters, according to a recent poll, Alsobrooks and her supporters believe reproductive rights is a winning issue for her, and they have raised the issue continually throughout the campaign. But Hogan tried to parry the attacks Thursday, arguing that Alsobrooks’ attempts to tie him to anti-abortion Republicans amounted to the kind of blind partisanship that voters disdain.
“We’re going to hear a lot about this talk all night, because that’s the way they talk in Washington,” he said.
Alsobrooks described the Supreme Court as “awful” and said she would support attempts to reform the court, through term limits, an expansion in the number of justices, and ethics reforms.
“They no longer support the will of the people,” she said.
Alsobrooks also dredged up quotes Hogan made praising Supreme Court justices, which she said came after the Dobbs decision. But Hogan said he was referring specifically to a high court decision on funding for Jewish schools.
Hogan lamented that Supreme Court nominees rarely get bipartisan support anymore, and contrasted that reality at the federal level to his own success appointing judges in the state — including six of the seven current judges of the state Supreme Court (then known as the Maryland Court of Appeals), who were confirmed unanimously. Hogan has said that if he’s elected to the Senate, he will only support nominees from the White House who are able to win bipartisan support.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan responds to a reporter’s question Oct. 10 after the U.S. Senate debate at Maryland Public Television in Owings Mills. Photo by William J. Ford.
“If there’s one thing we should not be politicizing, it’s the Supreme Court,” he said.
Asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd, who served as debate moderator, whether he would have supported Trump’s three nominees to the Supreme Court, Hogan replied, “I wasn’t there and I don’t know how I would vote.”
Foreign policy
Foreign policy played a small but significant part of the candidate debate. One of the panelists, Deborah Weiner, an anchor on WBAL-TV, noted that Cardin is a strong supporter of Israel, while U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for an immediate cease fire in Gaza and return of all the hostages being held by Hamas. She asked Alsobrooks whether she’d be more like Cardin or Van Hollen if elected.
“I’m neither, I’m Angela Alsobrooks,” she said, adding, “We have an obligation to get those hostages home and work on negotiations that will lead to a cease fire.”
Hogan called himself a strong supporter of Israel and criticized Alsobrooks for embracing support from Van Hollen, who he called “probably the most anti-Israel member of the United States Senate.”
Alsobrooks hit back: “Sen. Cardin, who is supporting me, says he is ashamed of the way Gov. Hogan is politicizing this issue.”
Asked whether they would support sending U.S. troops to Taiwan as that country fends off aggression from China, Alsobrooks said no. Hogan replied, “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Hogan said he decided to run for Senate after congressional Republicans “tanked” a deal that would have provided extra aide to Taiwan, Ukraine and stronger security measures at the U.S. border.
Alsobrooks again sought to link Hogan to the national GOP on foreign affairs.
“The problem the governor is going to have is his party doesn’t believe in these alliances” that the U.S. has traditionally had with other foreign governments.
The personal troubles
During the debate, Alsobrooks was asked by WRC-TV reporter Tracee Wilkins about reports that she improperly claimed tax credits on two properties she owned, one in Prince George’s County, the other in Washington. Alsobrooks said the mistake was inadvertent and that she was scrambling to make amends.
“I always pay my taxes — always,” she said.
After the debate, she told reporters that she had already paid back the principal she owed for improperly claiming the tax breaks and was working to repay the interest.
Asked why the revelation about Alsobrooks should matter to voters, Hogan conceded, “I’m not sure it should matter to voters.”
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While his campaign has only made occasional references to the Alsobrooks tax flap since it was first reported by CNN, a super PAC called Maryland’s Future, which supports Hogan, has already spent millions of dollars attacking Alsobrooks over the matter with TV and radio ads.
Neither candidate was asked Thursday about a new report in Time magazine that said the Maryland Board of Public Works, which Hogan presided over as governor, on several occasions awarded lucrative state housing contracts to clients of Hogan’s real estate firm. The report said that almost 40% of all competitive affordable housing contracts granted during Hogan’s tenure went to companies represented by his firm, which his brother took over when Hogan became governor.
Democrats seized on the report, suggesting that Hogan, at a minimum, had violated state ethics laws by not disclosing the conflict of interest or recusing himself during these Board of Public Works votes.
“All of this creates many questions, questions that Gov. Hogan needs to answer,” former state Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) said on a call Thursday organized by the Maryland Democratic Party.
Speaking to reporters after the debate, Hogan dismissed the Time article as “completely false.”
“I just saw it as I was walking into the debate,” he said. “This is what’s called an October surprise.”