Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who resigned as one of former President Donald Trump's few prominent Republican critics, is running for Senate in his home state.
Hogan announced his plans Friday in a video posted to social media, hours before the race declaration deadline.
Hogan recalled his father's decision to support the impeachment of then-Republican President Richard Nixon, lamenting the lack of “leadership” and “the will to put country above party.” And he relied on his time as governor to market himself to voters in blue states where he has had electoral success.
“You know me, Marylanders. For eight years, we have proven that the toxic politics that divide our country need not divide our state,” Hogan said.
“One party alone cannot solve the problem,” he continued. “We desperately need leaders who are willing to stand up to both parties, leaders who understand that neither of us has all the answers or all the power.”
Hogan will immediately become the party's front-runner for the nomination, likely becoming the only Republican in the state to potentially replace retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore won the 2022 election with more than 64% of the vote, but that victory was against a candidate from the right wing of the party. Hogan won two terms in the blue state, including a 12-point victory in 2018, two years after Democrat Hillary Clinton won the state by almost 27 points at the presidential level.
But it's still an uphill climb for Republicans, and there's no shortage of prominent Democrats running for seats.
Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) has spent more than $19 million on advertising so far in his campaign as he seeks promotion to the Senate. He has touted the support of dozens of his House colleagues, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Tron has the support of Governor Moore, State Senate President Bill Ferguson, House Speaker Adrian Jones and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who has struggled in the early months of the primary. He is a candidate running against Mr. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
Shortly after the news broke, Van Hollen told reporters that Democrats should not take Hogan's bid lightly, but that he was “confident that the Democratic nominee will win.”
But even if Mr. Hogan has a tough chance of flipping the Senate seat, his profile and political clout could at least force Democrats to pay attention to a race they had hoped to ignore. There is. Especially since Democrats face a difficult map to contest in the Senate. Defensive.
Hogan's electoral success in Maryland is unusual for a Republican. He won a second term in 2018, the first Republican governor in 64 years. He did that by presenting himself as a more centrist Republican who resists President Trump's rightward shift of the party.
In 2016, when Mr. Hogan voted for president, he wrote a letter to his father, a former Maryland congressman who was one of the first Republicans to call for President Richard Nixon's impeachment over Watergate. In 2020, Hogan said he voted for Ronald Reagan.
Hogan most recently held a leadership role in No Labels, a group aiming to run for president on a nonpartisan, third-party presidential ticket in 2024, sparking speculation about his own political plans. . He then endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley over Trump as this year's Republican presidential candidate.
Mr. Hogan said in an interview with NBC News last month that he was concerned about the future of the party if Mr. Trump won the nomination and served another term in the White House. She said she was thinking about her role within the party, and if Haley did not reject the former president's nomination, independent-minded anti-Trump Republicans like her could lose political space. admitted that there is.
“That's the million-dollar question, and I don't know if there's an answer,” Hogan said at the time. “A lot of people are trying to figure that out. It's a long road to deciding who will be the nominee, and it's a long road until November.”
Seven other Republicans have filed to run for the Maryland Senate.
