BALTIMORE — U.S. Senate candidates Angela Alsobrooks and Larry Hogan debated Thursday for the first — and likely only — time during the general election campaign. Alsobrooks, the Democrat Prince George’s County executive, and Hogan, the Republican former two-term governor, are vying for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.

The 60-minute debate covered several topics including abortion, ghost guns and school resource officers.

Here are fact checks of five points made in the debate.

School resource officers

Claim: Hogan said Alsobrooks pulled school resource officers out of schools, a claim he has made on the campaign trail to criticize her handling of school safety in Prince George’s County.

Facts: After the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020, Alsobrooks launched a police reform work group and later accepted nearly all of its recommendations, including a few changes to school security. The recommendations called for better training of officers as well as a “restructuring” such as removing arrest powers of school security personnel — security officers who are not sworn police — and requiring school resource officers to wear body cameras and dress in plain clothes. One recommendation was to “eventually phase out security personnel.” According to information provided by Alsobrooks’ campaign, county-provided sworn officers have not been removed from schools and civilian security personnel ranks have increased.

Abortion

Claim: Hogan says his position on abortion is similar to Alsobrooks’ position.

Facts: After announcing his U.S. Senate candidacy last February, Hogan said it was not “really necessary” for Maryland to include the right to abortion in the Maryland Constitution, but said he would not vote for a national ban on the procedure if elected to the Senate. He said a few months later — following the May 14 primary — that he is in favor of restoring the precedent set by the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade as the “law of the land,” and that he also would vote in favor of the November ballot question to enshrine access to reproductive health care — including abortion — in Maryland’s constitution. In that sense, their positions are now similar, although Alsobrooks says his past statements and record should be considered.

Violent crime

Claim: Alsobrooks said she “lowered crime by 50%.”

Facts: Violent crime rates in Prince George’s County did drop by roughly that amount when Alsobrooks was state’s attorney. State data shows violent crime declining from 6,202 incidents in 2010 to 2,801 in 2018 in the county. Hogan has pointed to FBI data showing violent crime rates up in recent years, which is also true. But that data shows violent crime continuing to drop for the first part of her time as county executive, so the recent increase has put the county slightly above where it was when she became its top elected official in 2018.

A Republican majority

Claim: Alsobrooks says Hogan “accepted an invitation by Mitch McConnell to run in this race because they want to give Republicans a majority in the Senate.”

Facts: A McConnell spokesperson has confirmed that the Republican leader encouraged Hogan to run. According to Steve Daines — head of the U.S. Senate Republican campaign committee — Republicans had done polling before Hogan entered the campaign in February and determined that the former two-term Maryland governor remained popular.

Ghost guns

Claim: Alsobrooks says Hogan refused to sign a measure as governor to ban “ghost guns.”

Facts: Hogan did not sign a 2022 bill banning the possession and sale of untraceable “ghost guns.” But that bill was passed, and went into effect because he also declined to veto it. Alsobrooks said the legislation showed Hogan was not willing to lead on the issue. Hogan said he felt the bill wasn’t tough enough on the perpetrators.

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