Democratic Maryland U.S. Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks on her first meeting with Kamala Harris

[Music] executive ala Brooks congratulations on your DNC speech it was really great oh thank you oh my gosh it was so exciting to um to represent marylanders I was at that convention 32 years ago for the first time as a college student and I was working as a volunteer and so it was the thrill of a lifetime to go from working as a volunteer standing on the floor checking credentials to actually standing on the stage 32 years later speaking to to uh to Americans it was incredible yeah well then let's just start there in your speech to talk a little bit something I didn't know about you is your history with KLA Harris and uh talk a little bit about how you first met her and her influence um on your life in 2009 I actually read an article um about kamla in Essence magazine and they were describing this book written uh called smart on crime and I love the strategy she discussed in that book I talked about the fact that we it was a false choice between being tough on crime um and and basically we should be smart on crime um so after that I was talking about her on the campaign Trail because I was running for State's Attorney at the time and two days after I won the election I got a call pick the phone up and it's kamla Harris and she said you know what congratulations just tell me what I can do to help and we have since then been friends she's been a wonderful Mentor she's obviously a tremendous role model and it's just been um really great to to have known her over these last it's been 14 years isn't that incredible uh now you're the Democratic nominee for US Senate for Maryland uh what are your major uh issues that you want to work on uh in the US Senate you know Economic Opportunity is the number one ISS issue um that I've heard as I've had a chance to talk to marylanders um they're concerned about making sure that we bring back the kind of infrastructure the kinds of investments in Internet and Roads Bridges Transportation um to make sure we're attracting jobs and increasing income I've done this as County Executive so for example um was really instrumental and attracting back to Maryland the FBI National FBI headquarters that's an example of what I'll do as a senator uh we're bringing back 7,500 jobs but also attracting to our state cyber security technology jobs so Economic Opportunity is the number one issue um as well as Freedom so women's rights um the Women's Health protection act is something is is probably the first piece of legislation I'd like to co-sponsor to codify in federal law a woman's right to choose um and also will be working U really hard as well um to make sure that we are um increasing Access to Health Care uh and making sure that we um also make sure our communities are safe you know really fighting against gun violence passing sensible gun legislation to ban for example assault weapons and making sure that we're removing ghost guns from our streets and and keeping keeping people safe you know in America the number one way that a child dies is by gun violence I'm the mother of a 19yearold and I cannot tell you how many mothers I have held in my arms um whose children have been killed and so this is a very personal issue his mothers his fathers uh whose children have been killed and so I'll be working really hard to protect our families and our children um now you're running against Larry Hogan who describes himself as a moderate um why don't you lay out for people what the difference between having Larry Hogan in the Senate and having you in the senate in terms of the balance of power and all the things that could could happen or not happen in a potential Harris Administration you know well first of all Larry Hogan's policies have not been moderate I don't know what he feels in his heart um but I can tell you that he vetoed for example abortion care legislation in our state um and when he was overridden by the legislature he withheld the funding for it he's a person who um also voted against waiting periods um sensible waiting periods for for guns he U refused to sign legislation that baned um ghost guns in our state so he's his record is not so moderate uh and so maintaining the majority in the Senate is going to be important he was attracted to the race by Mitch m Connell um and so he would be joining a caucus of people that are led by Donald Trump uh that includes lindsy Graham Ted Cruz Mitch McConnell uh and these are the people who if they were given the majority would control the agenda for our country so maintaining the majority is going to be most important uh to align uh with people whose values are more reflective of Maryland I'll be there voting against gun violence and voting for sensible legislation I'll be voting to preserve voting rights this is something that the Republicans um do not believe in I'll be the the 51st vote will also help us to reform the filibuster so that we can get through civil rights legislation and other important legislation and I'll be also uh the 51st vote will also confirm Supreme Court Justices uh and that is very important we've seen these courts uh have a concerted eort to roll us back the immunity decision this Chevron decision that will AFF affect climate change um and so you know it's really important me and Larry Hogan to two caucuses and and have a set of ideology and policies that are so different from each other and I'll be there uh in the 51st vote is going to be really important to also give kamla Harris as our president the ability to get her agenda done that's going to be really important the inflation reduction Act was a big thing uh under the Biden a big accomplishment of the Biden Harris Administration are there things you want to do in terms of building on the sort of investments in the in the country that uh you would pursue in the US Senate yes the inflation reduction Act was really transformational historic legislation uh one of the things that it did was to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with big pharmaceutical companies so we could cap the out-of pocket cost to prescription drug medications uh it also allows insulin to be capped at $35 um and it is of course a climate bill that is you know once in a generation but remember every single Democrat voted yes to the inflation reduction act in every single Republican voted no so if we allowed my opponent and his party to gain a majority in the Senate that's the kind of legislation that would have never happened we know as well you know and so I want to build on the inflation reduction act uh to protect the climate uh to continue to make health care more affordable and to grow this green economy uh that will benefit our country and benefit our our children who are looking to have Economic Opportunity but to do so you we must maintain the majority in the Senate because the the view of our country in the future couldn't be any more different and Republicans have been there to block um and to otherwise cause all kinds of you know gridlock and I'll be there trying to move us forward not going backwards wow well that's a great note to end on uh executive albergs congratulations uh on your speech and your nomination and good luck in the race thank you thank you so much for having me thank you T take care