Angela Alsobrooks

Angela Deneece Alsobrooks (born February 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Maryland. A member of the Democratic Party, she served from 2011 to 2018 as state's attorney for Prince George's County and from 2018 to 2024 as county executive of Prince George's County. She was Prince George's County's first female county executive and the first Black female county executive in Maryland history.

Born and raised in Prince George's County, Alsobrooks graduated from Duke University and the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She began her career as an attorney for local firms before becoming involved in county government as a domestic violence prosecutor and appointed official in county executive Jack B. Johnson's administration. She was elected state's attorney of Prince George's County in 2010 and 2014 and Prince George's County Executive in 2018 and 2022.

Alsobrooks was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2024, defeating former Republican governor Larry Hogan in the general election. She is Maryland's first African-American senator and the third African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She is the second woman to represent Maryland in the Senate, after Barbara Mikulski.

Angela Deneece Alsobrooks was born in Suitland, Maryland, on February 23, 1971, to James Alsobrooks, who worked as a distributor for The Washington Post and a car salesman, and Patricia Alsobrooks (née James), a receptionist. Her family moved from Seneca, South Carolina to Maryland in July 1956 shortly after her great-grandfather, J. C. James, was shot and killed by police officer Charles Lee while resisting arrest. Lee was not charged in James's death after a coroner's jury found that he had acted in self-defense after the two began to scuffle as Lee attempted to arrest James for creating a disturbance. Alsobrooks has said that her surname is of West African or Native American origin.

Alsobrooks was raised in Camp Springs, Maryland, and attended Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, D.C. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy and Afro-American studies at Duke University in 1993, and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law of the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1996. After she was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1996, Alsobrooks clerked for law firms DLA Piper and DeCaro, Doran, and for Circuit Court Judges William D. Quarles Jr. and Donna Hill Staton until 1997, when she began working as an assistant state's attorney in Prince George's County. She was assigned to handle domestic violence cases as an assistant state's attorney. She left the state's attorney office in 2002 to become education liaison for Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson. In 2003, she was appointed executive director of the county revenue authority.

Alsobrooks first got involved in politics while serving as the president of her high school's student government. She later worked as an intern for U.S. House Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Alsobrooks attended the 1992 Democratic National Convention as an intern to the Congressional Black Caucus and volunteered for Democratic nominee Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. In 2000, she worked on the presidential campaign of Vice President Al Gore. In 2008, Alsobrooks ran for delegate to the Democratic National Convention, pledged to U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. After the convention she supported Democratic nominee Barack Obama. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she was a delegate pledged to Clinton.

In 2009, Alsobrooks became involved with electoral politics when she filed to run for Prince George's state's attorney after reading a profile of District Attorney of San Francisco Kamala Harris in Essence Magazine, and her book Smart on Crime. Harris supported Alsobrooks's campaign for state's attorney.

Alsobrooks was first elected Prince George's state's attorney in 2010, and reelected in 2014. She is the first woman and youngest person to serve as state's attorney in county history. In the 2010 election Alsobrooks ran with the support of Maryland Secretary of Aging Gloria G. Lawlah, county executives Wayne K. Curry and Jack B. Johnson, and incumbent state's attorney Glenn Ivey, while running on a slate with former state delegate Rushern Baker.