Democrat Angela Alsobrooks has won Maryland's Senate election, NBC News predicts, defeating popular former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and becoming the first Black woman elected to represent the state in the Senate.

The unusually fierce contest to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin was always going to be a must-win for Democrats trying to retain their majority in the Senate. This also means that for the first time in history, Maryland will have a black senator, governor and mayor of its largest city, Baltimore.

Alsobrooks' victory, along with Democratic Sen.-elect Lisa Blunt Rochester's victory in Delaware, also means the Senate will have two Black women next year for the first time in history.

“We're looking at a time we've never seen before,” Alsobrooks told NBC News on the campaign trail in August. “This election will help us decide what kind of future we want for our children and grandchildren and what kind of state and country we will build for them.”

Alsobrooks, the county executive in Prince George's County, easily won the Democratic primary this year despite being outnumbered by Rep. David Trone 10-1. Campaign spending only increased from there: Both Alsobrooks and Hogan spent tens of millions of dollars trying to influence voters in a state that President Joe Biden won by more than 30 points in 2020.

“I think it’s wonderful to have her in the Senate. She is extremely qualified. She will do a great job for her state and the people of the country, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., told NBC News this fall.

Polls consistently showed Alsobrooks ahead in the weeks leading up to the election. Hogan never quite replicated the support he received from Democrats for governor in his Senate campaign. During his two terms as governor and as a Senate candidate, Hogan tried to distance himself from former President Donald Trump and even declined to endorse him.

But splitting the Republicans' column with Trump on the ballot seemed like too much of a bridge for Democrats who had once been willing to vote for Hogan, said David Lublin, chair of American University's government department.

“I don't think he's going to win, especially because the Democrats who might be willing to vote for him at the state level if they gave him a chance at the federal level are reluctant,” Lublin said before the election. “Frankly, the sad thing about this case is that the Senate could use more moderates and more moderate Republicans.”

The race stood out to Lublin because, in his view, it maintained a relative level of normality — or at least what was considered normal a decade ago — in a nationwide political environment marked by one unprecedented event after another. In Hogan, many Marylanders saw a Republican who represented an increasingly rare version of the party before Trump came to power. And Alsobrooks, according to Lublin, was “accepted by the Democratic establishment” as a liberal who “does not seem unrealistic.”

“In many ways it’s like an old-fashioned race because neither party is running an extreme candidate,” he said. “We’re not just going to vote for the person we hate the least. They are both good politicians.”

But national narratives still managed to get into the race, according to Candace Turitto, director of the University of Maryland's Applied Policy Analysis Program.

“Alsobrooks' main attack on Hogan was still to portray him as a member of this more extreme Republican party that would ultimately promote a far-right agenda,” Turitto said in an email to NBC News before the election. “Hogan’s public record does not, in my opinion, lead to that conclusion, but that message is likely successful given the totality of her ballot.”

Alsobrooks' election is also historic because it shows the “increasing normality” in electing black politicians, Lublin said.

In Maryland alone, Wes Moore, the state's first black governor, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, both Democrats, gained national attention following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March. Moore, in particular, is seen as a rising star in the national party.

“There is a tacit feeling among many Democrats in Maryland that it is just as time to elect our first black senator as it was time to elect our first black senator,” Lublin said.