Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan launched a surprise, last-minute bid for an open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland on Friday, hours before the filing deadline.
In a video announcing his 2024 Senate bid to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, Hogan said, “Washington is completely broken” because a “willingness to put country ahead of party is far too rare.”
Using lines familiar to Maryland residents, he cast his candidacy as one against partisanship in general, and he described himself as “like the exhausted majority of Marylanders.”
“My fellow Marylanders, you know me,” he said. “For eight years we proved that the toxic politics that divide our nation need not divide our state.”
He’s the only well-known and high-profile Republican in the race. The Democratic primary has become a two-person contest between Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
Two years ago, Hogan was courted by national Republicans to challenge Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and help the GOP tip the chamber’s balance of power, but he declined after months of speculation.
“I have repeatedly said, I don’t aspire to be a United States senator, and that fact has not changed,” Hogan said at the time.
Republican leaders did not give up.
“He’s immensely popular,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Friday, “And who would have thought we could be competitive in a blue state like Maryland? We clearly will be.”
McConnell called the recruitment a “boost” to Republican efforts to take back the Senate majority. The GOP’s top targets are the open seat of West Virginia, where Gov. Jim Justice is running as a Republican and on a glide path to victory, and the red states of Montana and Ohio, where Democratic incumbents are hoping to keep their seats.
Hogan’s reversal now will test the endurance of his popularity and whether Maryland’s Democratic voters are willing to send a pragmatic Republican to the U.S. Senate if it would hurt Democrats nationally.
Hogan’s electoral success in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2 to 1 relied on building a coalition: party faithful, a large swath of independents and some Democrats willing to cross party lines.
The Maryland Republican Party he led has lost many of the pro-Hogan leaders from his tenure, replaced by supporters of former president Donald Trump, whom Hogan has sharply criticized for years.
His handpicked Republican successor for the governorship, Kelly M. Schulz, lost the 2022 primary to far-right Dan Cox, who was closely aligned with Trump and went on to lose the general to Gov. Wes Moore (D) by more than 32 percentage points.
Cox is now among the crowded field seeking the Republican nomination to Maryland’s most competitive congressional district, which stretches into conservative Western Maryland.
Democrats were quick to criticize Hogan’s candidacy as an opportunity for Republicans to seize more power in Washington.
“A vote for Republican Larry Hogan is a vote to make Mitch McConnell Majority Leader and turn the Senate over to Republicans so they can pass a national abortion ban. Democrats have won every statewide federal election in Maryland for 44 years and 2024 will be no different” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement.
Trone and Alsbrooks, locked in their own high-stakes battle for the Democratic nomination, each quickly attacked Hogan.
“Marylanders are tired of empty promises from career politicians like Larry Hogan,” said Trone, a three-term congressman. “He talks about putting politics aside but spent his entire tenure as governor waging partisan attacks through bad policy,” Trone said, pointing to ways Hogan “failed the city of Baltimore.”
Alsobrooks posted on X, “Maryland cannot afford to send an anti-choice Republican to the U.S. Senate.”
Hogan infuriated Maryland Democrats for years with his ability to sidestep divisive social issues — such as by calling abortion a matter of settled law in Maryland — and focusing instead on pocketbook matters and criticizing politicians for being partisan.
Since leaving office a year ago, he was a co-chair of the centrist group No Labels, which is trying to get presidential candidates on ballots across the state as a potential alternative to President Biden and Trump.
In December he resigned his leadership position with the organization.
Staff writer Liz Goodwin contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
