Vice President Kamala Harris stated Friday that more federal action is required to prevent gun violence during a campaign stop in Maryland for Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat whose U.S. Senate race could determine chamber control.
Harris commemorated the 10th annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day by emphasizing the need for stricter regulations to prevent gun violence. The vice president also emphasized the experience of a longtime friend who served as both the state’s attorney and chief executive in Prince George’s County, located in the nation’s capital suburbs.
“Maryland, this November, you have the power to elect leaders who have actually kept our communities safe,” Harris stated.
Alsobrooks defeated U.S. Rep. David Trone last month, after the congressman spent around $62 million of his personal riches to self-fund his campaign. She is now running in a tight battle against popular Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan for a Senate seat that will open up with the retirement of Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin.
In Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 statewide, no Republican has won a United States Senate seat in more than 40 years. However, Hogan is running the most competitive Senate race for the Republican Party in the state in decades.
Alsobrooks would be Maryland’s first black senator and the country’s third black woman elected to the Senate. Harris became the second black woman elected to the chamber.
Alsobrooks stated that she would support legislation requiring universal background checks, banning military-style assault weapons, and combating illegal firearms trafficking.
The county executive, who emphasized that gun violence is the greatest cause of mortality among children in the United States, also stated that she will not back down from holding gun manufacturers accountable “for the immense harm that they have caused our state and our country.”
“And let me be crystal clear: we will not accomplish these goals to keep Americans safe without the Senate majority, and I want you to know that it has become the case that the path to the majority runs through Maryland,” said Alsobrooks.
Prominent Maryland Democrats like Gov. Wes Moore and Sen. Chris Van Hollen attended the rally where Harris and Alsobrooks spoke.
Van Hollen cited Hogan’s prior endorsement by the National Rifle Association during his 2014 governor race. The senator also mentioned that Hogan had an A-minus rating from the NRA.
Hogan, who gained enough crossover Democrats to serve two terms as governor of extremely blue Maryland, is one of former President Donald Trump’s harshest Republican opponents. However, Van Hollen believes Hogan’s past NRA rating implies his beliefs are closer to Trump than he would like to admit.
“So, I know he says there are many distinctions between him and Donald Trump, but when it comes to this problem, the only difference is that Donald Trump received an A. Larry Hogan received an A-minus from the NRA,” Van Hollen stated.
Hogan eventually distanced himself from the NRA during his second governor’s campaign in 2018, and the organization did not endorse him after he signed several gun-control bills.
In an interview with the Associated Press in mid-April, Hogan stated that he would support a national assault weapons ban after not opposing a state ban when he was governor of Maryland.
“I’m in favor of an assault weapons ban,” Hogan told The Associated Press. “I’ve been supportive of efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. I also support a universal background check. We had an assault weapons restriction in Maryland, which we maintained.”
In a statement issued on Friday, Hogan’s team stated: “While Angela Alsobrooks is campaigning today, instead of just offering more platitudes, we urge her to tell voters how she will address the skyrocketing crime on her watch in Prince George’s County.”
The Hogan campaign also mentioned a recently revealed crime-fighting strategy that involves supporting law enforcement, removing repeat violent felons from the streets, and keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental conditions and those convicted of violent crimes.
Democrats are clinging to their 51-49 Senate majority. They are defending seats in other states that Trump won four years prior.