A fan of Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) at her victory celebration Tuesday night. Photo by Josh Kurtz.
The driving distance from The Hotel in College Park, which is across the street from the University of Maryland campus, to Howard University in Washington, D.C., is just 7.2 miles.
But as election night lurched toward an uncertain Wednesday morning, the psychic distance between the two venues widened.
A large segment of the crowd that had gathered to celebrate Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks’ historic win for U.S. Senate Tuesday night stifled that joy to worry and wonder about the fate of Vice President Kamala Harris, who was joining supporters at Howard, her alma mater, awaiting results of the presidential election. It did not look good for Harris in early returns.
Some Maryland Democrats left the Alsobrooks celebration early so they could get to the Howard campus. They missed a good party.
It was hard for Alsobrooks’ supporters not to be swept up by the history of the moment and the size of Alsobrooks’ victory over former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who had tried to defy the political odds and Maryland’s voting patterns one more time by running for Senate. Gov. Wes Moore (D), himself a historic figure in state and national politics, called it “her-story.”
“With Angela, I don’t just see a great leader,” Moore said. “I see my daughter. I see my wife. I see my sisters. I see my mom. I see all those who came before us, and they’re all smiling tonight.”
Even Hogan acknowledged the import of the moment.
“Tonight, regardless of who you voted for, we can all take pride in the election of the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate,” he said in a written message to supporters.
That same history was repeated next door in Delaware Tuesday night, where U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) was also elected to a Senate seat. Come Jan. 3, for the first time in history, two Black women, Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester, will be serving side-by-side in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.
“Of all the people who have served in the United States Senate, only three have looked like me,” Alsobrooks told the cheering crowd. She also sought to assure her supporters about Harris’ fate.
“What you’re going to learn tonight is that you’re going to be led by a woman, by my friend, Kamala Harris.”
But at that point, even the most optimistic Democrat wasn’t all that certain.
Earlier in the evening, before Maryland results came in, five big-screen TVs in the hotel ballroom projected MSNBC’s coverage of the White House election and other races. The crowd invariably cheered the good news for Democrats. They cheered Blunt Rochester’s projected victory especially loudly.
“Can you feel it?” asked Charlene Dukes, the vice chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. “We’re going to make history.”
But as the night ground along, the jubilation was tempered by the grim reality that Harris appeared to be trailing Republican former President Donald Trump.
“We have too much PTSD from 2016,” one veteran Democrat said.
“I’m feeling great for Angela, a little nervous for Kamala,” said Prince George’s County Councilmember Wanika Fisher (D), who like the vice president is half-Black and half Indian-American. Earlier in the day, Fisher had campaigned alongside Alsobrooks in Bladensburg with Maryland first lady Dawn Moore and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who had herself attempted unsuccessfully to join the Senate earlier this year.
“That was really fun,” Fisher said.
Alsobrooks makes history in Senate race, as Hogan cannot repeat his magic
Asked early in the evening about the historic import of Alsobrooks’ victory and Harris’ candidacy, Montgomery County Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles (D), who had campaigned for Harris in Pennsylvania, replied, “If I start thinking about it and talking about it, I’m going to get emotional.”
At the time, she said she still felt confident about Harris’ prospects: “We’ll be celebrating later this week.”
But as the clock ticked past 11 p.m., and Harris seemed stuck in the Electoral College, Sayles admitted to feeling a little queasy, looking over Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich’s shoulder as he checked election results on his phone.
“I’m OK. I’m hanging in there,” she said.
After Alsobrooks’ victory speech, which ended shortly before 11 p.m., the big-screen TVs went off to make way for loud, celebratory music and dancing. But dozens of party-goers retreated to the hotel’s hallways to hash over election results from across the country.
One of Alsobrooks’ chief arguments against voting for Hogan was that his election could flip the Senate to Republican control. But that happened anyway, as the GOP picked up at least three seats Tuesday, with a few more hanging in the balance.
“This is like a national disaster,” Elrich said, who predicted that total Republican control of the White House and, possibly, both chambers of Congress, could eviscerate the federal workforce, which could have dire economic consequences for Maryland’s D.C. suburbs.
“We’re going to lose all kinds of money,” he said.
Former state Del. Alice Johnson Cain (D), who represented Anne Arundel County, arrived late to Alsobrooks’ party after attending the victory celebration in Annapolis for state Sen. Sarah K. Elfreth (D-Anne Arundel), who was elected to Congress Tuesday. Cain said it was good to see two strong women elected to represent Maryland on Capitol Hill, but she said she felt compelled to head home to more closely follow the presidential tally.
“I’m scared as hell, but hoping for the best,” she said.