LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that more must be done at the federal level to prevent gun violence during a campaign stop in Maryland to support Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat whose U.S. Senate race could determine control of the House.
Harris, speaking on the 10th National Gun Violence Awareness Day, marked the occasion by highlighting the need to pass more laws to end gun violence. The vice president also highlighted the experience of her longtime friend, who served as state attorney and also as chief executive in Prince George’s County, in the suburbs of the nation’s capital.
“Maryland, this November you have the power to elect a leader who has truly kept our community safe,” Harris said of Alsobrooks, whose campaign is key to Democrats maintaining control of the Senate.
Alsobrooks defeated U.S. Rep. David Trone last month after the congressman spent about $62 million of his personal fortune to self-finance his campaign. Now, she is running a competitive race against popular former Republican governor Larry Hogan for a Senate seat that will open with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat.
A Republican hasn’t won a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in more than 40 years, in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 statewide. But Hogan is running the most competitive GOP Senate race in the state in decades.
Alsobrooks would become the first black U.S. senator from Maryland and the third black woman in the country to be elected to the Senate. Harris was the second black woman elected to the chamber.
Alsobrooks said he would support legislation for universal background checks, a ban on military-style assault weapons and combating illegal firearms trafficking.
The county executive, who noted that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., also said she would not back down from holding gun manufacturers accountable “for the immense harm they have done to our state and our country.”
“And let me be very clear: We will not achieve these goals of keeping Americans safe without a majority in the Senate, and I want you to know that the path to a majority goes through Maryland,” Alsobrooks said.
Harris and Alsobrooks spoke at a rally that included some of Maryland’s top Democrats, including Governor Wes Moore and Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
Van Hollen highlighted Hogan’s past endorsement by the National Rifle Association during his 2014 campaign for governor. The senator also noted that Hogan received an A-minus rating from the NRA.
Hogan, who won over enough Democrats to win two terms as governor in heavily blue Maryland, has been one of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics. But Van Hollen said Hogan’s past rating by the NRA suggests his politics are closer to Trump than he would like to admit.
“So I know he goes around saying there are a lot of differences between him and Donald Trump, but when it comes to this issue, the only difference is that Donald Trump got an A. Larry Hogan got an A minus from the NRA,” Van Hollen said.
Hogan later distanced himself from the NRA in his second campaign for governor in 2018, and the organization did not support him that year after he signed several gun control measures.
In an interview with the AP in mid-April, Hogan said he would support a national assault weapons ban, after not opposing a statewide ban while he was governor of Maryland.
“I’m in favor of banning assault weapons,” Hogan told the Associated Press. “I have been in favor of trying to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. And I’m in favor of universal background checks. We had an assault weapons ban in Maryland, which we maintained.”
Democrats are clinging to a 51-49 majority in the Senate. They are defending seats in other states that Trump won four years ago.
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Associated Press journalist Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
