In television ads, campaign speeches and any of the other myriad ways Democrat Angela Alsobrooks introduced herself to voters, the message was relentless: If Maryland didn’t send her to the U.S. Senate, Republicans would take control of the chamber — putting at risk any shot at passing laws that could protect abortion access, strengthen gun control laws or combat climate change.

Voters heeded the warning. The larger ramifications happened anyway.

Alsobrooks defeated former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan this week in what became the closest U.S. Senate race in Maryland in decades. But Republicans won back the majority — where Democrats held a slim, 51 to 49, edge for the last two years — by flipping at least four seats in other states, forcing Alsobrooks into the minority when she takes the oath of office in January.

The Prince George’s County executive’s campaign made control of the Senate its primary talking point all summer and fall.

“The stakes of this election couldn’t be any clearer. This is so much bigger than [Hogan],” Alsobrooks told a small group at a Prince George’s County barbershop, repeating the campaign mantra two weeks before Election Day. “What it is about is making sure that we have a majority in the Senate.”

Even a 30-second ad featuring former President Barack Obama showed him claiming, “Control of the Senate could come down to Maryland.”

That possibility turned out to be a mirage — but an extremely effective mirage, according to political observers, polls and interviews with voters in the final weeks of the race.

“She did a very nice job of letting people know that this is about control of the Senate. As it turns out, it really wasn’t,” said Joseph Dietrich, a Towson University assistant professor of political science. “Essentially, she tried to do something that [Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris] did: ‘This election isn’t about me. It’s about bigger things.’ That fell wildly flat for Harris but seemed to work pretty well for Alsobrooks.”

Polls showed the message resonated in a state where Hogan remained popular but where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 1.2 million.

A University of Maryland, Baltimore County Institute of Politics statewide poll at the end of September found that 54% of likely voters said, when asked to consider the outcome of the race from a national perspective, that they wanted Democrats to win control of the Senate. Responding to an open-ended question about why Alsobrooks’ supporters would vote for her, a quarter said it would be because they wanted her party to keep the majority.

Mileah Kromer, the director of the UMBC Institute of Politics who ran the poll, said it’s not normal for voters to think about outcomes like Senate control when deciding how to vote.

“Someone had to make it a top-of-mind thing,” Kromer said, giving credit to Alsobrooks’ strategy. “She recognized it’s not enough to say the message once or twice. If you really want voters to hear you, you have to say it over and over and over again and draw a messaging throughline through the entire campaign, and I think that’s exactly what she did.”

Kromer is the author of a book about Hogan’s unprecedented modern-day success as a Republican elected twice to the Maryland governor’s office. She said Alsobrooks’ message “was more nuanced and effective” than other Democrats who have tried to tie Hogan to Donald Trump, a largely disliked figure among Marylanders and who Hogan has refused to support.

Instead of trying to brand Hogan as a Trump Republican, Alsobrooks focused on the idea that even if Hogan is different, he’d still be a reliable vote for a party that has opposed policies Democrats support, Kromer said.

Hogan pushed back on that idea, saying repeatedly that he would stand up to the “extremes” and “crazy” on both sides of the aisle. He also pointed out that polls in other states showed it was increasingly clear his election wouldn’t be the last domino to fall and put Republicans in the majority.

West Virginia, where Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin was not seeking reelection, was all but guaranteed to flip, meaning Democrats needed to win the White House and every other competitive race just to have a 50-50 tie that would be broken by the incoming Democratic vice president. But polls showed other Democratic incumbents barreling toward a loss, especially U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in Montana.

By the end of the day Thursday, not only had Montana and West Virginia flipped, but Democratic U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania had also lost to Republican challengers.

Hogan was right, even if his pitch of being a moderating and common-sense voice in a Republican majority didn’t land.

Kromer said it was “almost an impossible lift” compared to Democrats’ simpler message of “A vote for Larry Hogan is a vote for a Republican majority.”

“You have to get voters to think not only of control of the Senate but how the votes might shake out in different states,” Kromer said.

Matthew Foster, an American University professor of political science, said Hogan was essentially trying to convince Democrats that the Senate picture, nationally, was going to be so bad for them so “you might as well vote for me.”

“That’s a hard message to sell,” Foster said.

Though Hogan stressed he’d be a sane voice in the caucus, he would have needed to “all but become a Democrat,” leaning even harder into the idea he would be independent — possibly to the point that he switched his party affiliation to independent and risk losing his Republican voting base and financial support, Foster said.

“There’s nothing more he could have done,” Foster said.

Dietrich said Hogan was “100%, without a doubt, the best candidate [Republicans] could have recruited.” He was “a perfect candidate” because of his background and widespread popularity among both Republicans and Democrats.

But Alsobrooks’ had the benefits of a larger built-in base of Democratic supporters, and she was both likable and effective with her message in a way that Hogan wasn’t, Dietrich said.

Even if some Democrats believed Hogan — and initial results show a couple hundred thousand Harris voters did also pick Hogan — others believed Alsobrooks that he would’ve been a vote for Republicans on issues they cared about. That includes abortion access, which Hogan previously opposed expanding but said as a Senate candidate he would support.

“I don’t think he would’ve had a choice if he had gotten into the Senate [controlled by GOP],” Dietrich said. “The pressure on him to vote along with the rest of the Republicans would have been amazing.”

Have a news tip or question about this story? Contact politics editor Candy Woodall at cwoodall@baltsun.com.