October 28, 2024
In a state that is blue, except for many years on the eastern shore of Maryland, former Republican Governor Larry Hogan is pitted against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County.
Although a republican, Hogan is not in the MAGA camp at all. He did not even attend the 2024 Republican Convention. He has high name recognition and achieved a remarkable upset when elected as governor in 2014 as the only second Republican governor elected in 50 years. In 2018, he became the first Republican governor to win a second term in Maryland since 1954.
This year though he is running against Alsobrooks, who is considered a protege of Vice-President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
In 2024, Hogan is running as anti-Trump Republican. If Hogan wins, he will be the first Maryland Republican to win a Senate race since Charles McCurdy Mathias Jr., who served from 1969 to 1987. Mathias was considered a moderate republican.
Whether Hogan likes it or not, Trump endorsed him even though Hogan has admitted he is not voting for Trump.
Five months into his governorship, he was diagnosed with cancer and governed the state from a hospital bed while receiving six months of chemo treatment.
Subsequently, he pushed the Cancer Moonshot Initiative and built the new cancer center in Prince George’s County and one in Baltimore and invested $230 million in cancer research.
Hogan’s father served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the first Republican to publicly call for President Richard Nixon’s impeachment over Watergate.
Hogan has been criticized by both republicans and democrats. Some republicans like Liz Cheney, who has endorsed Kamala Harris and is campaigning with her, would have preferred that Hogan run as an independent just to block a republican majority in the Senate.
Hogan brushes that off but he still has other issues that Maryland voters have their eyes on like immigration and abortion.
Maryland has illegal immigrants and Hogan is against any deportations.
“We have to secure the border because it’s a huge problem. Because there are people that we want and need in the country that we can’t, they can’t follow the process. People that maybe graduate with advanced degrees and scientists and doctors and people that going make some incredible discoveries and we’re making them go back home after they finish their schooling – that’s crazy,” said Hogan.
Hogan says he is pro-choice, but when he was governor, he vetoed a bill that would have expanded access to abortion.
Hogan’s excuse then was that the bill was an attempt to allow non-medical professionals like “midwives” administer abortions.
That was before the U.S. Supreme Court 2022 decision that left abortion law to the states.
On the campaign trail, Hogan has said that “on day one” he would “co-sponsor a bill to codify Roe.”
Hogan served as Co-Chair of the National Governors Association with former New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie.
Although Christie ran against Donald Trump for president and then supported him, he later broke with Trump. Hogan has been fairly critical of Trump.
Both Hogan and Christie have been close to No Labels, who attempted to build a third-party ticket in 2024, but failed.
Although No Label’s internal polling showed that a republican should be at the top of their ticket because their polls showed that America is still center-red, Hogan was never a No Label’s option although they floated his name in the last year.
Christie though was an option heading up No Labels’ top slot. Initially, Christie said yes he would run as told to CDM by someone on that No Labels’ phone call.
Later, Christie announced he was not running for president publicly and No Labels only found out the former New Jersey governor changed his mind after he announced it to the public.
Today, both men are outspoken about Donald Trump.
In Maryland’s statewide poll, Hogan is doing better than Trump by about 25 percent, but that is no surprise with its blue dot history.
What will be challenging is who is more aligned with Kamala and just where the independent voters move in a state that some believe is moving closer to the California political vibe.
Hogan has participated at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and has more of a known globalist view, but his democratic opponent is lockstep with the Harris Walz ticket.
Even among Maryland republicans, who support Trump and did care for Hogan’s covid lockdown policies tell CDM that they may just vote for Hogan to get a Republican Senate and “hold their noses.”
The question is whether Hogan will be a republican maverick in the Senate fighting Trump all the way if he wins the race.
Author, Christine Dolan
Christine Dolan is a seasoned Investigative Journalist, television producer, author, and photographer. She is Co-Founder of American Conversations whose format focuses on in-depth analysis of critical issues about “the story behind the headlines.”
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