The first head-to-head encounter among the Democratic contenders for the Senate seat up for grabs in next May’s primary will be Sunday. The forum begins at 2 p.m. at Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg and is sponsored by the Latino Democrats of Prince George’s County. In addition to the front-runners—U.S. Rep. David Trone of Potomac and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks—long-shot contender and telecommunications executive Juan Dominguez of Anne Arundel County will also be in attendance.
Trone—who regularly boasts to audiences that Montgomery County-based Total Wine and More established a policy of benefit rights for same sex partners more than two decades ago—has sought to position himself as out in front on LGBTQ+ issues among the candidates in the Senate race.
“Check on our support of LGBTQ rights. Outspoken from Day 1. You should compare that,” he recently advised District 18 Democrats, without offering further specifics.
In turn, Alsobrooks has pointed to her support of the “Civil Marriage Protection Act” —which established the right of same-sex marriage in Maryland—when the law was passed by the General Assembly in 2012 and was then placed on the November ballot via a petition drive by opponents seeking to nullify the measure.
“Angela supported the Civil Marriage Protection Act and donated to and helped fundraise for the campaign to pass that referendum in 2012,” Alsobrooks Communications Director Gina Ford wrote in an email, adding: “In the Senate, she will continue to stand up for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, including the right to marry, grow their families, and live free from discrimination [and] will strongly oppose Republican efforts to undermine equality and promote discrimination, including the recent wave of anti-trans legislation in some Republican led legislatures.”
While the Civil Marriage Protection Act was approved by voters in the referendum a decade ago by a relatively narrow 52%-48% statewide margin, it was a tale of two cities, politically speaking, between neighboring Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
While the law was approved overwhelmingly in Montgomery in the 2012 general election, it narrowly went down (by a 50.4%-49.6% margin) in neighboring Prince George’s—an outcome widely attributed to the influence of the county’s Black churches and the social conservatism of a number of those churches’ ministers.
Del. Anne Kaiser (D-Silver Spring), one of eight openly gay members of the current Maryland General Assembly, said that Alsobrooks’ support of the Civil Marriage Protection Act a decade ago was accompanied by potential political costs.
Kaiser—a senior member of the Montgomery County legislative delegation who has endorsed Alsobrooks’ Senate bid—recalled holding a fundraiser in October 2012 to boost efforts to pass the referendum upholding the law. “Angela came to our home for the event, despite being advised otherwise,” Kaiser said in a written response to a question from MoCo360, adding that Alsobrooks had spoken in favor of the act “along with [then-Maryland Comptroller] Peter Franchot and [U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes] and others.”
Nevertheless, the history of the same-sex marriage debate in her home county has prompted some critics to suggest that Alsobrooks, as county executive, has been less than full-throated on LGBTQ+ issues, even as the Alsobrooks campaign—in a position paper posted to her website—noted that “Angela appointed the first-ever LGBTQ+ liaison to better serve the community and connect members of the LGBTQ+ community to critical county resources.”
A recent symbolic flash point was the raising of the Pride Flag during Pride Month last June, which Prince George’s County did for the first time this past summer in front of its county administration building. Montgomery County has done a similar flag raising for the past five years.
Some LBGTQ+ advocates grumbled that the Pride Flag was raised quietly “in the middle of the night” without any ceremony. “It made it seem like it’s something shameful that has to be done in the dark, that [we] cannot have a ceremony,” County Councilmember Krystal Oriadha, the council’s first openly bisexual member, told local TV station DC News Now.
(Oriadha is among five members of the 11-member Prince George’s County Council who so far have not endorsed Alsobrooks in the Senate race; Oriadha backed at-large Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando until the latter withdrew from the Senate race in October.)
Ford did not offer comment on why the Pride Flag was not raised in front of the Prince George’s County administration building during Alsobrooks’ first term; this year’s initial flag raising took place after Alsobrooks declared her Senate candidacy. While her appointment of a LGBTQ+ liaison also was announced after her entry into the Senate race, the search process for that position is said to have begun at the end of December 2022—several months before Sen. Ben Cardin’s retirement announcement put his seat up for grabs.
In the days leading up to the Sunday forum, we’ll take a detailed look at how Alsobrooks and Trone have positioned themselves so far on these controversial topics.
Part I: How the candidates are positioning themselves
Part II: Abortion
Part III: Criminal justice reform and the death penalty
Part IV: LGBTQ+ rights
Part V: Diversity
