CHICAGO — Prince George’s County Executive and Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks spoke Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Alsobrooks, who is running against former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan for Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat this year, made her DNC featured speaker debut with a prime-time speech just an hour before former President and first lady Barack and Michele Obama spoke.
During her speech, she talked about Vice President Kamala Harris and their relationship that goes back 14 years. Both women have endorsed each other in their respective races — Harris endorsing Alsobrooks in June and Alsobrooks endorsing Harris in July after she announced her run.
A mentee of Harris, Alsobrooks says she met the vice president just after being elected the state’s attorney for Prince George’s County in 2010. At the time, Harris was district attorney in San Francisco, and Alsobrooks talks in the speech about her admiration for Harris’ Back On Track program. With Harris’ help, she says, she implemented it in Maryland.
RELATED: Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks talks support for Kamala Harris, her fight to keep Maryland blue
The majority of her speech makes a strong case for her friend’s campaign. In July, Alsobrooks sat down with WUSA9 to talk about that enthusiasm she has for Harris’ presidential campaign and her plan to keep Maryland blue.
Here is the transcript of her entire speech:
People like me, stories like mine do not usually make it to the United States Senate, but they should.
I'm the proud grandfather of a housekeeper, Sarah Daisy, who raised her three children in a one-bedroom apartment.
It was her dream to work in government to help people. That meant takin
g a typing test. But she did not know how to type and she couldn't afford a typewriter.
So, she put a white piece of paper on the refrigerator and drew a keyboard on it. And every night, she stood in front of that refrigerator and taught herself to type.
She took the test, passed it and got the job she dreamed of.
I am her legacy.
And tonight, I am a candidate for the United States Senate from the great state of Maryland.
I have always been inspired by women like my grandmother. Women who imagine a better future and then have the grit to make it a reality.
One of those women is a friend, a mentor and a role model. That woman is Kamala Harris.
Let me tell you about the Kamala I’ve known for 14 years. I first heard about her in 2009 when I was running for state's attorney in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
I read a story in Essence magazine about a district attorney in San Francisco using new ideas to keep her community safe. Few had a better record prosecuting violent crime. She put rapists, child molesters and murderers behind bars. But what she knew was that violent crime accounts for about 30% of all crime. For the 70% that are nonviolent, she created a first-of-its-kind program called Back On Track. After serving time and pleading guilty, these low-level offenders would get the job training, GED help and apprenticeships they needed to find a job.
The result? The recidivism rate plummeted.
Now, after reading about this super bad district attorney, I talked non stop about her on the campaign trail. Two days after I won the election, my phone rings.
It was Kamala Harris, calling to congratulate me and ask how she can help.
She helped me bring Back On Track to Maryland. And wouldn't you know it, crime went down, and economic growth went out.
Back On Track is now a national model.
Now Donald Trump says, if Kamala Harris is elected, tough guys will treat her like a play toy. Do you know who else thought that? The drug cartel she busted. The big oil company she made pay for polluting. The big banks that she made pay $20 billion to homeowners they ripped off. Getting justice for others isn’t a power trip for her, it’s a sacred calling.
And hear me, Kamala Harris knows how to keep criminals off the streets.
And come November, with your help, she will keep one out of the Oval Office.
Ever since Donald Trump rode down that ridiculous escalator, we as a nation have felt trapped. Every national decision has been made in reaction to this one man and his extremist MAGA movement. We are still frozen by the fear that Donald Trump might once again come to power.
And it’s not just our politics that have been trapped, it’s our imagination. And then, Kamala came along.
Kamala has reminded us that we don't need to fear anything. Not the future, and certainly not that man. This is our moment to leave Donald Trump where he belongs: in America's past.
We stand with Kamala Harris because we as a country are not going back.
For the ancestors who sat at lunch counters and made sure that we all had the right to vote, we are not going back.
For the mamas and grandmamas that marched to make sure that women could control our own bodies, we are not going back.
For the parents who work from can't see in the morning to can't see at night, not so that they have a better future, but so that their children will have a better life, we are not going back.
When facing an obstacle my father has often said to me, "Your faith is stronger than your fears."
Tonight, our faith is stronger than our fears. Faith and the promise of America. Faith in the American idea, and the American values that we share. Faith that we the people can choose a new leader, a better future for the people. Faith that as dark as our days and challenges have sometimes felt, it’s always darkest before the dawn.
We know that we can endure for a night because joy cometh in the morning. Morning is coming. Morning is coming and that joy will be led by Kamala Harris.