Then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan addresses supporters on the Maryland statehouse on Jan. 10, 2023, in Annapolis, Md. Hogan introduced Friday he’ll run for U.S. Senate.
Julio Cortez/AP
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Julio Cortez/AP
Then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan addresses supporters on the Maryland statehouse on Jan. 10, 2023, in Annapolis, Md. Hogan introduced Friday he’ll run for U.S. Senate.
Julio Cortez/AP
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan introduced Friday that he’ll run for U.S. Senate, giving Republicans a outstanding candidate who’s well-positioned to run a aggressive marketing campaign for the GOP in a state that hasn’t had a Republican U.S. senator in 37 years.
The choice marks a shock turnaround for Hogan, a average who had thought of a presidential bid. Throughout Hogan’s tenure as governor, he turned a nationwide determine as one of many uncommon Republicans prepared to criticize Donald Trump. Final month, Hogan stepped down from the management of the third-party motion No Labels.
”My fellow Marylanders: you understand me,” Hogan begins in a video launched by his Senate marketing campaign. ”For eight years, we proved that the poisonous politics that divide our nation needn’t divide our state.”
The previous governor added that he determined to run for Senate ”to not serve one occasion, however to attempt to be a part of the answer: to repair our nation’s damaged politics and battle for Maryland.”
”That’s what I did as your governor and it is precisely how I am going to serve you in america Senate,” Hogan stated.
GOP leaders are keen to select up the seat as they attempt to wrest management of the Senate from Democrats, who maintain a slim majority and are defending extra seats than Republicans in 2024.
In 2022, Hogan rebuffed an aggressive push from Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and different Republicans to run towards Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
When he introduced his resolution to not run for Senate two years in the past, Hogan expressed confidence he may win. ”However simply because you’ll be able to win a race, does not imply that is the job you need to do in case your coronary heart’s not in it. And I simply did not see myself being a U.S. senator,” he stated then.
The previous two-term governor who left workplace early final 12 months might be working for an open seat as a result of retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin. Hogan made his Senate bid recognized simply hours earlier than Maryland’s submitting deadline.
Hogan introduced in March that he wouldn’t problem Trump for the GOP’s White Home nomination. Final month, he squelched hypothesis of a third-party presidential run and endorsed former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for the Republican nomination for president.
The not often open Maryland Senate seat already has drawn U.S. Rep. David Trone into the Democratic main, in addition to Angela Alsobrooks, the county govt of Prince George’s County within the suburbs of the nation’s capital. Trone, the rich founding father of a series of liquor shops referred to as Whole Wine & Extra, has poured $23 million of his personal cash into his marketing campaign to this point.
Seven Republicans have filed to enter the GOP main, however none is as nicely generally known as the previous governor. Hogan was solely the second Republican governor to ever win reelection in Maryland, a state the place Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1.
He received his first time period as governor in 2014 in an upset, utilizing public marketing campaign financing towards a better-funded candidate. Operating on fiscal considerations as a average Republican businessman, Hogan tapped into voter frustration over a sequence of tax and price will increase to defeat then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.
Hogan, who had by no means held elected workplace earlier than, centered on pocketbook points from the outset. He lowered tolls, an motion he may take with out approval from the Normal Meeting, lengthy managed by Democrats. However he additionally confronted challenges, together with unrest in Baltimore following the dying of Freddie Grey in police custody in 2015. Hogan despatched the Nationwide Guard to assist restore order.
In June of that 12 months, Hogan was identified with stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma however continued working whereas receiving therapy. He has been in remission since November 2015.
Maryland’s final Republican U.S. senator was Charles Mathias, who served within the Senate from 1969 to 1987. Mathias was generally known as a liberal Republican who typically clashed along with his occasion over points such because the Vietnam Conflict and civil rights.