Sen. Angela AlsobrooksCertified

Electoral Legitimacy (27/30)

Angela Alsobrooks won her Senate seat outright in the 2024 general election, defeating Republican former governor Larry Hogan to become Maryland’s first African American senator . Notably, Hogan’s own concession was gracious rather than adversarial: upon her victory Hogan stated on X, “I want to congratulate County Executive Alsobrooks on a hard-fought victory. 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.” There is no record in our searches of Alsobrooks ever disputing a certified election outcome without evidence — either her own or others’. To the contrary, her public rhetoric has consistently framed election administration integrity as something to protect rather than attack, including floor remarks opposing what she calls voter suppression efforts. Because she has not personally faced (and lost) a high-profile contested election as a federal officeholder, and because her tenure is short, we withhold a couple of points from the maximum, but there are no red flags whatsoever.

Voting Rights (23/25)

Alsobrooks has built one of the more assertive voting-rights legislative profiles among first-term senators. She is a sponsor of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2025 to update and restore critical safeguards to the original Voting Rights Act , and in September 2025 she introduced S.2912, the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, to address the rise in deceptive voter suppression practices and intimidation in federal elections , a bill that was cosponsored by Senators Van Hollen, Blumenthal, Cantwell, Gillibrand, Hirono, Merkley, Padilla, and Schiff . She has also taken a public floor stance against the GOP-backed SAVE Act, with reporting noting Senator Alsobrooks addressed voting rights concerns, speaking on the Senate floor opposing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act . On her campaign platform, she pledged support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which empowers the Department of Justice to enforce voting rights and prevents any right-wing legislature in the country from undermining those fundamental rights, as well as the Freedom to Vote Act. This is a robust, consistent record, docked slightly only because much of it remains at the introduction/advocacy stage rather than enacted law.

Checks and Balances (17/25)

As a senator sworn in only in January 2025, Alsobrooks has a limited but generally positive oversight record. Reporting indicates she and colleague Chris Van Hollen were part of an effort where “Alsobrooks, Van Hollen, Team Maryland” were “Denied Entry at Baltimore ICE Facility” , suggesting active attempts at executive-branch oversight of immigration enforcement. She has also been publicly critical of executive-branch appointees, including a statement titled “ALSOBROOKS: MILLIONS OF BABIES’ LIVES AT RISK THANKS TO RFK JR. AND HIS CONSPIRACY THEORIST PANEL,” reflecting willingness to challenge administration figures. Her committee assignments include the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs — none of which are core oversight/judiciary committees, limiting her direct footprint on judicial-independence or subpoena-related votes so far. Given the short tenure and absence of a substantial voting record specifically on judicial nominations, subpoena enforcement, or war-powers/executive-overreach votes, we score this category in the middle range, crediting the oversight actions we did find without over-crediting a still-thin record.

Conduct in Office (20/20)

We found no nonpartisan findings — from the Senate Ethics Committee, an Inspector General, or the GAO — establishing wrongdoing by Alsobrooks. A conservative watchdog group, the National Legal and Policy Center, filed a complaint alleging Angela Alsobrooks filed false financial disclosures to the Senate Ethics Committee in potential violation of federal law related to a $47,000 property tax bill on a former D.C. property, and asked the committee to conduct a full investigation, issue subpoenas, and refer the matter to the Department of Justice . However, this is a partisan opposition complaint, not a finding by the Ethics Committee itself, and per the rubric such complaints — filed on the eve of an election by an advocacy group — do not count as nonpartisan findings. We located no indication the Ethics Committee substantiated the allegations. Absent an actual nonpartisan determination of wrongdoing, she receives full marks in this category, consistent with the rubric’s instruction not to penalize for the mere existence of an unresolved partisan complaint.

Bipartisan Cooperation (4/10)

Alsobrooks has shown a genuine, if not primarily democracy-focused, pattern of bipartisan legislating. She was an original cosponsor of the GENIUS Act alongside Senators Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Lummis (R-Wyo.) , which passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 68-30 . She also introduced the Bipartisan Access to Small Business Investor Capital Act with Senator Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) , partnered with Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) on the Homeless Children and Youth Act , and joined Senator Cramer (R-N.D.) … and Senator Curtis (R-Utah) on legislation reauthorizing the Wildlife Crossings Program . However, her signature voting-rights and election-integrity bills (the Deceptive Practices Act, John Lewis VRAA) currently list only Democratic cosponsors in our search results, meaning her cross-party work has not yet clearly extended into the “democracy-adjacent” space the rubric prioritizes. This earns a modest bonus for demonstrated bipartisan capacity generally, without a strong showing on the specific subject matter this bonus category targets.