Senator Alsobrooks wants Democrats talking generational wealth with Black voters: ‘Wealth is not a dirty word’

Angela Alsobrooks says Democrats’ message to Black voters should go beyond defeating Trump and focus on creating pathways to generational wealth.

As Democrats work to mobilize Black voters ahead of the midterm election and chart a legislative path to retake the majority in Congress, U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) believes there’s one topic her party needs to talk more about: Black generational wealth.

“I believe that the path forward for our community is going to be financial empowerment,” Alsobrooks told theGrio during the 55th Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference.

Alsobrooks, a former Prince George’s County Executive who made history in 2024 as the first Black American elected to the U.S. Senate from Maryland, said that as technology advances rapidly due to AI and blockchain, Black communities—which have faced generational systemic barriers to economic opportunity—must be prepared for a shifting labor market.

It’s not enough for Democrats to run campaigns promising to undo the harms of President Donald Trump‘s policies, says Alsobrooks. The U.S. Senator says her party must present an economic vision for the future that builds Black wealth rather than simply helps them get by.

“Wealth is not a dirty word. Some of my Republican friends, my Democratic friends, don’t like the word wealth. I don’t have any problem with rich people. I am interested in making sure that more and more Americans have the opportunity to be wealthy,” said Alsobrooks, who hosted a CBC Week panel on Wednesday titled “Preserving Wealth: Building Stronger Pathways to Generational Wealth.”

“We have to continue to plan ways that we will succeed; create the pathways to wealth, and that is going to mean that we have capital for businesses, find ways to make sure that we are educating our children about AI and about these technologies, and really creating a path forward,” she told theGrio.

Speakers on Alsobrooks’ panel, which included Andre Perry of the Brookings Institution, Shannan Herbert, CEO of the Washington Area Community Investment Fund, and Dr. Shena Ashley, Vice President of Community Impact and Investment at Capital One, discussed the importance of more inclusive economic policy and financial institutions lending more capital to Black businesses and individual borrowers.

Senator Alsobrooks has been traveling across the country to campaign with Democratic candidates on the ballot this November, including Georgia, where Keisha Lance Bottoms is running to be the state’s first Black governor, and U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is running for re-election, and Mississippi, where Scott Colom is running to be the state’s first Black U.S. Senator. She and Democrats have been engaging voters, especially Black voters, about how Trump’s policies, including cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and federal jobs, are impacting communities on the ground.

Alsobrooks says that, should Democrats win back power in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, they must chart a new path for Americans, most especially Black Americans.

“We’re not going back to where we were. The status quo was never good enough for us,” she told theGrio. “The major message that I am promoting is that we don’t want to live on the margins. Nobody is fighting to just get by. That’s not what it’s about. We deserve and need to have wealth for our families…We are no longer going to just stand by and hope that we can make it.”

As for corporations that have rolled back their DEI investments as a result of pressure from the Trump administration, Alsobrooks says, “We saw a huge pendulum swing that caused the erasure of so many programs.” She said that while Black communities should “take note” of the companies that turned their backs, “We should take note [of] the companies that really do support our communities, and we should speak with our dollars. We should support companies that support us.”

Alsobrooks also wants Congress to address affordability issues like the rising cost of health care and caregiving, groceries, gas, and utilities, which have disproportionately impacted Black Americans.

“These are the dilemmas that most families are facing, and they don’t want us distracted away from the issues that are most important to them,” said the Maryland U.S. Senator.

Alsobrooks said rather than focusing on investigating the Trump administration in a hypothetical Democratic majority in the next Congress, “We need to investigate the way to make people’s lives better first.”

She added, “That’s what we have to be focused on: how to improve people’s lives immediately. That’s what I’ll be focused on.”