Before the jury even read the guilty verdict in Donald Trump’s hush money case, Maryland’s Republican Senate nominee, Larry Hogan, staked out an island among the GOP faithful, igniting backlash by urging the public not to “pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship.”
Hogan’s statement immediately provoked the ire of powerful Trump-loving Republicans nationwide and in Maryland, where he needs to win over voters to succeed Sen. Ben Cardin (D) and help his party take control of the U.S. Senate.
“You just ended your campaign,” Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, posted on X, moments after Hogan released his statement.
You just ended your campaign https://t.co/LJDuQ4oj0A
— Chris LaCivita (@LaCivitaC) May 30, 2024
Dan Cox, the Maryland Republican who beat Hogan’s handpicked successor in the 2022 primary race for governor, called on the state GOP to censure Hogan “for his despicable and disgusting announcement.”
The Republican backlash gave Hogan the opportunity to cast himself in a role he relishes — as an independent whom Democrats can trust.
But it also highlights the tightrope he has balanced on since emerging a decade ago as a pragmatic Republican seeking the embrace of his own party while appealing to the Democrats who dominate the Maryland electorate.
Now Hogan is playing on a national stage, with control of the chamber on the line, Trump atop the Republican ticket and Democrats energized to shut down the MAGA agenda they say the former governor’s candidacy could empower.
All the while, MAGA allies present a potential threat.
LaCivita, in an interview Thursday night, described Hogan’s statement as a strategic error, saying the former governor risked alienating some of the “98 percent” of GOP voters he needs to win in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans.
“There are a lot of Republicans who are going to be upset with him for making that comment, and he needs all the Republicans he can get to win,” LaCivita said.
“From a political standpoint, it makes no sense to issue a statement that can be considered by us to be a criticism. It was stupid,” LaCivita said. “He didn’t have to say anything. Say, ‘It’s a sad day in America.’ But no, he had to make a point. If he’s going to make his point, we’re going to make our point. You take a shot, you’re going to get a shot back. That’s how it works in politics.”
A key Republican who recruited Hogan to the race, however, told Fox News that he remains a supporter.
“I still think Larry Hogan will flip Maryland,” said National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who was in the middle of a Fox interview when the news broke.
“Larry Hogan is going to run his campaign. Run his race. President Trump will run his race,” Daines said, though he also noted that he doesn’t agree with Hogan’s take: “I thought that the trial was a complete sham.”
According to Trump’s campaign, news of Thursday’s verdict prompted $34.8 million in contributions from small-dollar donors, the biggest 24-hour haul ever for the former president.
Maryland Republican Party Chairwoman Nicole Beus Harris didn’t address Hogan but issued a statement in line with party orthodoxy on Trump, calling the justice system “broken and corrupt.”
Hogan’s campaign Friday declined to comment on the ire from Trump backers. His response was nearly singular among prominent GOP players, though notably echoed by fellow Trump critic and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson.
Instead, Hogan’s campaign carried out its existing plan for Friday, releasing a video of a Democratic politician praising him in his ongoing “Democrats for Hogan” effort.
Hogan campaigned earlier this week in a deep-red area of Maryland that he lost to a Trump-aligned candidate in the primary. At one stop, the former two-term governor described himself as “the national leader of my party against MAGA” during his time in office. Local Republicans he campaigned with that day expressed confidence that they could bring GOP voters out for Hogan in the fall, when he’ll need the entire base, plus a large swath of independents and some crossover Democrats, to win.
“It’s not a question of how do we deliver Dorchester County. We’re delivering Dorchester County,” said Ben Doyle, treasurer of the Dorchester Republican Central Committee.
Hogan hasn’t decided whom he will vote for in the fall, but he has repeatedly said it won’t be for Trump or President Biden. (In 2020, he wrote in Ronald Reagan. In 2016, he wrote in his now-late father, Lawrence Hogan Sr., a former Maryland congressman.)
As the jury concluded deliberations Thursday, Hogan spoke to an audience of seniors at a Pikesville retirement community, presenting himself as a moderate alternative to the “broken” politics of Washington, where “the demands of the loud and angriest few” are “hellbent on tearing America apart.”
“I don’t come from the performative arts school of politics,” Hogan told the crowd, reminding them of alliances he formed as governor with Democratic state lawmakers to reduce taxes.
“I come from the ‘get to work, get things done’ school, and I will work with anyone who wants to do the people’s business.”
He did not mention his Democratic opponent, Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, by name.
Asked during a question-and-answer period, Hogan said he wouldn’t go to the Republican National Convention, which he hasn’t attended since before Trump’s 2016 nomination. Even while governor, Hogan routinely skipped the big Maryland Republican Party fundraisers each year.
Almost immediately after his May 14 primary win, Hogan seemed intent on setting the race’s narrative. He put $1 million behind a statewide ad buy and launched a “strong independent leadership” tour in an RV. Alsobrooks has yet to hit the general-election campaign trail or airwaves.
Hogan pivoted on abortion to call himself “pro-choice” for the first time, promising to support putting the abortion rights once promised under Roe v. Wade into federal law. Though he repeatedly has called himself a “lifelong Republican,” he has declared his independence from political parties, releasing an ad in which he says, “In the Senate, Republicans can’t count on my vote, but then again, neither can Democrats.”
Alsobrooks on Friday sent out a fundraising email emphasizing that regardless of what Hogan says, electing him to the Senate empowers a Republican majority aligned with a MAGA agenda.
“We’re going to need every penny to defeat Republican Larry Hogan and his MAGA backers in November,” the email read.
The Maryland Democratic Party has repeatedly said voters shouldn’t view Hogan’s latest proclamations as anything more than the political gamesmanship he rails against.
“Mitch McConnell recruited Republican Larry Hogan to give them a Senate majority, and Hogan’s been clear and consistent that he will caucus with Republicans,” party spokesperson Lindsay Reilly said.
As he campaigned in Dorchester County this week, a rural Republican stronghold on the Eastern Shore that he lost by 131 votes in the primary to Trump-aligned opponent Robin Ficker, Hogan dismissed the Democratic attacks suggesting that he would help Republicans in Washington.
“The things that they’re attacking me on, people just don’t buy,” he said at a Cambridge grocery store owned by a local Democratic county councilman who just endorsed him.
“‘He’s lying’ or ‘He’s too extreme’ or ‘He’s a right-wing Republican,’” he said, listing barbs he’s heard so far. “People are like, yeah, we don’t believe that. Wasn’t true before, and it’s not true now.”
Lateshia Beachum, Hannah Dormido, Kati Perry and Adrian Blanco contributed to this report.
