By Abigale Paterniti, News Editor
On Saturday, October 19th, delegates from Maryland, families and Marylanders both young and old, gathered at ColorBurst Park in Columbia’s Merriweather district for an Angela Alsobrooks rally, organized by none other than River Hill’s Young Democrats club. Arriving by bus, Alsobrooks and her team of delegates, including actor Micheal Ealy, stood in front of a crowd of enthusiastic voters as they gave speeches highlighting Angela’s accomplished career and character.
A proud lifelong Marylander and County Executive for Prince George’s County, Angela Alsobrooks is the first woman to ever hold the position. Additionally, Alsobrooks has served two terms as Maryland’s state attorney general in 2018. Angela is now running against Governor Larry Hogan to represent Maryland in the United States Senate.
Throughout her campaign, Alsobrooks prioritized abortion access, gun safety, immigration, climate change and education. Regarding education, Alsobrooks’ campaign website stresses how “many students attend schools in deteriorating buildings and are taught by underpaid and underappreciated teachers,” and highlights that “as a response to this issue, Angela took a groundbreaking approach in Prince George’s County by implementing a first-in-the-nation strategy for building new schools.”
Apart from her campaign priorities, during her speech at the rally, Alsobrooks emphasized the importance of voting, declaring, “To make sure we don’t spare any effort, I need you to get every single person out to the polls, to not take any chances – asking people whether or not they have a plan to vote.”
During the rally, River Hill seniors Charan Bala and Evan Trost, the co-presidents of River Hill’s Young Democrats club, took to the stage to share their goals, declaring that with only 17 days from election day, and “only 3 weekends left, we need all hands on deck to get out the vote for fellow volunteers, and all willing to help Angela.” To conclude their speech, Charan exclaimed, “Howard County, let’s go make history over these next few weeks.”
Following Charan and Evan’s speech, other dignified members of the community spoke, including Governor Wes Moore, who emphasized Maryland’s history and the significance of Alsobrooks’ candidacy, stating, “Nothing is given, everything is earned … This state is truly the foundation of America’s democracy, it was in this state that we had the first peaceful transfer of power.”
To close out the rally, Delegate Terri Hill took a moment to acknowledge the fundamental importance of American rights, “Number one it is about our rights, it is about voting, it is about freedom of speech.” Angela’s rally was about the importance of exercising constitutional rights as well as the broader importance of women in politics. As state Sen. Sarah Elfreth put it, “When women win, women get stuff done.”