Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks defeated Republican former two-term Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday in the state’s costliest U.S. Senate race ever. She will be Maryland’s first Black senator.

Hogan conceded around 10 p.m., calling Alsobrooks a “dedicated public servant” and said “we can all take pride” in her history-making achievement.

Alsobrooks was introduced by her daughter, Alexandra, and told cheering supporters at her victory party in College Park: “I don’t have enough words to say thank you to God.”

She thanked the “baddest” campaign team, and said, “I woke up this morning to my neighbors who lined my street and hosted a pep rally for me. To those Marylanders whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voice and I’ll be your senator, too.”

Alsobrooks’ victory came in an election that produced significant turnover in the state’s Washington delegation of eight U.S. House members and two senators. Alsobrooks and two House candidates, April McClain Delaney of Montgomery County in the 6th Congressional District and Sarah Elfreth of Anne Arundel County in the 3rd Congressional District, all sought spots in a delegation that is currently all male. The Associated Press declared Elfreth the winner, while McClain Delaney’s race was too close to call.

The last time two women were part of Maryland’s U.S. House delegation simultaneously was 1993-95, when Republicans Helen Bentley and Connie Morella overlapped before Bentley left to run for governor.

The victory of Alsobrooks, whose candidacy was boosted by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, means Democrats will continue to hold a seat left open because of the pending retirement of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.

Moore said at Alsobrooks’ victory party that Maryland had made “herstory.”

In a written statement, the governor said: “Angela Alsobrooks will fight every single day for the values we cherish as Americans — from the ability to have economic mobility and own more than you owe, to the freedom of feeling safe in your own skin and your own community, to having control over personal health care decisions.”

The race was closely watched by both national parties because Democrats held just a 51-49 majority over Republicans and were challenged to successfully defend enough seats to maintain control.

Alsobrooks’ election came in a year that saw an unusually high number of vacancies — four — in the state’s delegation.

The seats sought by McClain Delaney and Elfreth were open because of the retirement of Rep. John Sarbanes in the 3rd Congressional District and the decision by 6th District Rep. David Trone to seek the Senate seat. He lost to Alsobrooks in the May primary.

The retirement of C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Baltimore County in the 2nd Congressional District left another opening that was won by Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, a Democrat.

McClain Delaney — a Biden administration official and the wife of former Rep. John Delaney — faced Republican Neil Parrott, a former state delegate from Washington County making his third straight bid for the seat. Parrott was trying to become the first candidate in 54 years from one of the three westernmost counties to win the seat.

Elfreth, a Democratic state senator, defeated Republican Robert Steinberger.

Beginning with the primary election, Alsobrooks’ race was deluged with campaign money from the candidates and super PACs, which can spend unlimited amounts. From July through September alone, Hogan and Alsobrooks combined to directly spend nearly $20 million, with their allies spending millions more to benefit their campaigns.

Hogan was elected twice as governor in a state in which Democrats have a greater than 2-1 voter registration advantage. His task was harder in a presidential election year in which the presence on the ballot of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — a polarizing figure who lost his 2020 reelection bid — brought more Democrats to the polls.

Alsobrooks, who was raised in Prince George’s County, attended the University of Maryland School of Law and became a Prince George’s County assistant state’s attorney in 1997. She was elected in 2010 to the first of two terms as the county’s state’s attorney and has since won two terms as county executive.

She emphasized abortion rights during the campaign, criticizing Hogan’s 2022 veto of legislation allowing nurse practitioners, midwives and other non-physician medical professionals to perform abortions in Maryland. Hogan said he favored restoring the precedent set by the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.

During the candidates’ only debate last month, Hogan referenced Alsobrooks’ recent admission that she inadvertently claimed property tax credits she did not qualify for on a home she was renting out in Washington, D.C., that had belonged to her grandmother.

Alsobrooks’ campaign pitched her election as critical to Democrats’ efforts to try to maintain a Senate majority.

Jeffrey Johnson-Bey, 50, who voted at Gunpowder Elementary School with his 21-year-old son, considered the race’s national implications.

Though pleased with the job Hogan did as governor, Johnson-Bey said he voted for Alsobrooks to help give Harris — his presidential choice — “a Democratic-led Senate to deal with instead of giving Trump a Republican-led Senate.”

Delaware elected Lisa Blunt Rochester to the Senate on Tuesday, making her the state’s first Black senator.

Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester will be the third and fourth Black women sworn in to the U.S. Senate, following Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and Kamala Harris of California, the current vice president and Democratic presidential nominee. Harris is a mentor and friend of Alsobrooks. In neighboring Delaware.

The election of Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester means two Black women will serve simultaneously in the Senate for the first time.

Laphonza Butler of California was appointed to fill a Senate vacancy in 2023 but did not seek election.