As Angela Alsobrooks enters the U.S. Senate, she’s been battle-tested in a way that few Maryland politicians have ever been, defeating formidable and well-funded opponents twice in one year.

The Democrat will join the Senate in January in an unenviable position: as a brand-new member in the minority party, with the president also from the opposing party. After holding positions in deep-blue Prince George’s County, Capitol Hill will be a different world — not the D.C. envisioned with Kamala Harris in the White House and Democrats in control of the Senate.

Instead of working with Democrats to advance legislation to protect abortion access, combat climate change and improve health care, Alsobrooks is more likely to be joining her party as a counterweight to Republican President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress.

It’s not clear how Alsobrooks will manage the transition. Alsobrooks, who has been in new-member orientation, hasn’t granted interviews or spoken publicly since her victory speech on election night. But she’s bound to be buoyed by her back-to-back resounding victories.

“Angela has never lost an election,” said her campaign manager, Sheila O’Connell. “She certainly was not going to lose these elections.”

O’Connell joined Alsobrooks as campaign manager last December and set about building a team and crafting a strategy to get the candidate through two brutal elections — combined, candidates and outside groups spent at least $153.8 million to win the seat, according to OpenSecrets.

First, Alsobrooks, the county executive of Prince George’s County, had to get through a fierce Democratic primary against U.S. Rep. David Trone, who could tout his experience in Congress and back it up with tens of millions of dollars from his career as a liquor retailer.

In that race, the Alsobrooks team was judicious in its use of the smaller amount of money she had, waiting until the end of the campaign to put ads on the air after months and months of Trone dominating TV.

Alsobrooks leveraged her larger list of political allies and endorsers to help her connect with voters and spread her message. In the end, she toppled Trone by more than 10 points.

Then came the general election against Republican Larry Hogan, the popular two-term former governor and an adept campaigner himself.

The Alsobrooks team crafted a message unusual to Maryland: Rather than focusing solely on the candidate, it also made the election about the political context surrounding the race.

This election was about more than just Alsobrooks and Hogan, she argued. It was about who controls the levers of power in the U.S. Senate. Did voters want Democrats in charge or Republicans?

Democrats would take up issues important to Marylanders, such as ensuring abortion access and protecting democracy, Alsobrooks told voters. If Hogan was elected, he’d enable a Republican majority to put forward its agenda, she said.

“The idea of making party control a top-of-the-mind issue for voters took a lot. That is not something voters think about,” said Mileah Kromer, director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Kromer pointed to a 2023 national survey that showed more than one-third of Americans couldn’t identify who controlled the Senate.

But Alsobrooks succeeded in getting that message through. This fall, a poll from The Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that Maryland voters had definite ideas about Senate control — with 60% saying they preferred Democratic control to 32% who wanted Republicans.

Even Hogan’s team acknowledged the success of the Alsobrooks strategy. Top Hogan adviser Russ Schriefer wrote in a post-election memo that its internal polling “showed that this message had already sunk in by early June — suggesting media coverage about Senate control played a bigger role than paid advertising in shaping voter perception.”

“She connected the dots through being persistent and on message, and being a good candidate worth investing in,” Kromer said.

Alsobrooks’ team recognized early that Hogan remains popular with voters, including about one-third of Democrats who crossed party lines in the past to support him. Alsobrooks herself acknowledged during their sole televised debate that “we worked together very well” when Hogan was governor.

Alsobrooks rarely dissected or criticized Hogan’s record as governor, and she didn’t trumpet news stories that raised questions about Hogan’s connections to his eponymous real estate company when he was in office.

“To take on Larry Hogan’s popularity would have been a difficult challenge,” O’Connell said.

It helped, O’Connell said, that Alsobrooks genuinely enjoys campaigning and meeting people.

Former U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Democrat who has checked in with Alsobrooks over the years, was impressed by her campaign.

“I’m very proud of the fact that she ran an upbeat campaign, that she focused on people and their needs,” said Mikulski, the only woman to serve as a senator from Maryland. “She consistently has said she wants to be not only the senator from Maryland but the senator for Maryland.”

Brooke Lierman — a trailblazer herself as the state’s first woman to be elected comptroller — said Alsobrooks is one of the best retail campaigners she’s seen.

“She is a great listener and she’s able to meet people where they are, and she can take our shared values and represent us in an incredibly nimble and able way,” said Lierman, a Democrat.

Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman, who coordinated phone banks and door-knocking operations for Democrats up and down the ballot, recognized Hogan’s strengths. It’s something he knew firsthand, having run for lieutenant governor with gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown in 2014, when Hogan won his first term as governor.

“We did not for one minute take Larry Hogan for granted,” Ulman said. “We knew what a formidable opponent he represents.”

The Alsobrooks campaign’s strategy and messaging discipline were tested by a flurry of news stories about property tax credits that she should not have received. Alsobrooks quickly admitted she made a mistake and pledged to pay any money owed, and then pivoted right back to policy issues and party control.

“When it came to message, we were doggedly disciplined,” said Connor Lounsbury, a senior adviser to Alsobrooks.

Hogan’s supporters launched a barrage of attack ads on TV and in flyers mailed to voters. They came from a super PAC called Maryland’s Future that was funded largely by GOP mega donor Kenneth Griffin and other big contributors.

Some of the ads charged that Alsobrooks is a “tax cheat” and “slumlord” and featured a rat scurrying across the screen.

The ads may have made a dent, but they didn’t knock Alsobrooks off course. Publicly available polling showed her continuing to hold the advantage through the fall. The team was confident enough to order bright green signs reading “Angela is my senator” for the election night party.

Through Friday evening, Alsobrooks’ victory margin over Hogan was a little more than 10%.

Alsobrooks topped Hogan in most of the state’s populous jurisdictions: Baltimore and Baltimore County, and Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles and Howard counties.

When the final finance reports are filed, it’s likely the Senate race, from start to finish, primary to general, will be the most expensive in state history. It attracted national attention and political advertising at a level Maryland had never seen before.

When Alsobrooks was victorious on election night, she first thanked God. And then she quickly turned to thanking her supporters and “the baddest campaign team” — a favorite phrase of hers reserved for superlative compliments. O’Connell, she said, was “incomparable” and “a super bad woman.”

“She flew this plane no matter what the winds were,” Alsobrooks said.

Ulman credits the Senate victory to Alsobrooks’ strength as a candidate and a smart campaign.

“She came through a very, very challenging primary with a formidable, well-funded opponent. And then immediately had to get up and take on the former two-term governor,” Ulman said. “I am so impressed with the campaign that she ran. It was disciplined. It was on message,” Ulman said.

Or, as O’Connell put it: “Angela Alsobrooks takes down one giant, and the next giant steps up and she takes down that one, too.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Sapna Bansil contributed to this article.