By Ariyana Griffin
AFRO Staff Writer
agriffin@afro.com
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate for Maryland, spoke at Morgan State University on Aug. 29 imploring students, alumni, faculty and staff to exercise their right to vote.
Alsobrooks won the Democratic party’s Maryland primary, garnering 357,052 votes – 53.37 percent of all ballots cast. The primary results led her Democratic competitor David J. Trone to drop out of the race after he spent millions to receive 42.80 percent of all votes submitted. Alsobrooks is now running against former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican candidate who pulled 183,661 votes, tallying 64.18 percent of votes in his category for the primary election. If elected, Alsobrooks would be the first Black senator– male or female – from the state.
Morgan State University communications professor Dr. Jason Johnson expressed that this was a great opportunity for students to get involved and learn more about Alsobrooks and her platform. He shared that he did a general knowledge quiz for his media literacy course to see who knew of her, and was surprised by the numbers.
“My class has sophomores, juniors and seniors,” Johnson told the AFRO. “Out of 25 students, only about two of them knew who Angela Alsobrooks was– only two out of about 25– which is especially amazing because four or five of those students came from the county where she was the county executive.”
“This is a great opportunity for her to explain and introduce herself to young people who should be a part of her base,” said Dr. Johnson.
Alsobrooks took to the historically Black institution’s campus, deemed a National Treasure in 2016 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to highlight the importance of utilizing the right to vote–especially this election season.
“I’m fighting for your future. It’s not one that you live on the margins. I’m fighting because I believe that our country owes it to you,” said Alsobrooks. “You should live beyond your wildest dreams. I believe that every one of you is owed by our country the real opportunity to have economic opportunity and to be able to buy homes for your families.”
“We want you all to have the technology, the jobs and innovation, all that you desire for yourself,” she said, adding that those present deserve to “ live in safe communities.”
For the young women present, Alsobrook said she’s running for senator to ensure they are able to make their “own decisions with privacy and freedom,” especially when it comes to issues regarding their bodies.
She spoke about the fight it took for African Americans to gain the right to vote in the United States and how she plans to fight against rights being taken away.
“I want you to have at least as much freedom as your parents and grandparents. The voting rights that some of our foreparents fought for–they jumped in front of dogs and water hoses because they knew the importance of the right to vote.” Alsobrooks said. “We’re not going to let anybody take that right from us. We’re not going to have any right that belongs to us, taken from us. Be it the voting right, the right to control your body, the right to live in peace and dignity.”
Alsobrooks also said those in the LGBTQ community deserve “to live with dignity and to be treated with fairness.”
After speaking to the audience, she took time to speak to and take photos with attendees and members of campus organizations. Some students shared that they felt motivated after hearing Alsobrooks speak.
“I am very hopeful for the next generation and really inspired by the fact that there’s a Black woman that looks like me running for Senate,” Carlona Brevard, a senior political science major at Morgan State University, told the AFRO.
“I am a political science major going into pre-law. Right now, I’m standing on this side of the fence, but one day I’ll be on the other.”
Tyler S. Dawkins, a freshman strategic communication major from Upper Marlboro, Md. spoke on what Alsobrooks’ senate run means to him and the Black community.
“I believe it’s important to elect Angela Alsobrooks into the U.S. Senate,” he said. “When people see her in the Senate, they see their mom, their sister, their aunt, they see themselves.”
