By EMILY R. CONDON
MILWAUKEE – Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is running for the Senate, was not here this week as fellow Republicans from his state cheered Donald Trump’s third nomination as the GOP presidential standard-bearer.
Many Maryland delegates appeared comfortable with Hogan’s decision.
“His tickets are at home. His votes are at home. He needs to be there cause he’s doing exactly what he needs to do to win in November,” Nicole Beus Harris, Maryland Republican Party chairwoman, told Capital News Service on the convention floor Wednesday night.
Hogan is in an awkward political spot. He is not supporting Trump this year and he did not back the former president in 2020 or 2016, either. But Trump in June said he would support Hogan, saying to Fox News “I’m about the party and I’m about the country.”
“Honestly, I think the fact that Trump endorsed him is more harmful than the fact that Hogan does not like or support Trump,” Todd Eberly, associate professor of political science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, said in a statement to CNS.
“In order to win, Hogan needs to win about 1 in 4 Democratic voters,” he said. “Being endorsed by Trump doesn’t help with that.”
The convention that concluded Thursday night with Trump’s acceptance speech was entirely the former president’s operation.
Trump’s GOP critics, like Hogan, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski were not welcome. Even former presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who earlier this year said she would not back Trump, received a mixed reception when she endorsed him in a convention speech earlier this week.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, whose tenure began while Hogan was still governor of Maryland, had no criticism of his fellow Republican.
“And the thing about the governor…is, you know, he’s going to do what he thinks is right, and I think that’s what people in Maryland would want,” DeWine said in an interview. “He’s consistently done that throughout the time he was governor. He’ll do that as a United States senator.”
On May 30, tensions between Hogan and the Trump camp flared when Hogan tweeted that Americans should “respect” whatever the verdict would be before Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in the New York hush money case.
“Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process,” Hogan’s X post read. “At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders – regardless of party – must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
A senior Trump advisor, Chris LaCivita, tweeted back at Hogan: “You just ended your campaign.”
Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee and Trump’s daughter-in-law, said on CNN the next day that Hogan doesn’t “deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party” or anyone in America.
Nevertheless, Trump subsequently said he supported Hogan’s Senate bid against Democrat and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
“I can say that at least he (Trump) extended his grace to him (Hogan),” Maryland State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, R-Baltimore County, said in a phone interview Thursday. “So it will be good if it can go both ways.”
Salling said that he wishes Hogan would have attended the convention. He believes Hogan’s absence doesn’t benefit the Republicans’ efforts to capture the Maryland Senate seat.
“(Attending) shows strength; it shows unity. I think more than ever now, we are unified, ever since the attempted assassination,” said Salling, who attended the first two days of the convention.
But other Maryland GOP delegates and officials in Milwaukee didn’t share Salling’s view.
“The party is united. We are enthusiastic. We are ready for November,” Beus Harris said.
Christopher Anderson, a Baltimore City Republican Central Committee member and a convention delegate, is currently campaigning for Baltimore City Council. He said he does not see a divide in the GOP.
“No, it’s not a rift in the party,” Anderson said. “Hogan’s busy doing his campaign in Maryland.”
”I mean, Hogan has an uphill climb for the Senate,” he added. “I mean, this is a very major race. I don’t think he shouldn’t be here. I think he should be in Maryland getting votes.”
And contrary to LaCivita’s post, Hogan’s campaign is quite lively. Back in Maryland this week, the former governor spent the week on campaign-related events.
Hogan met with local law enforcement officials, advocated for veterans services and benefits, picked up the endorsement of the Maryland Forward Party and called for unity in politics, according to Blake Kernen, the former governor’s campaign spokesman.
“Governor Hogan is focused on reaching voters in Maryland – not Milwaukee,” Kernen said in a Thursday statement to CNS.
The Forward Party, formed by 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican, was formed less than two years ago as a centrist alternative to the Republicans and Democrats.
The Maryland Forward Party’s website features a statement titled: “Voting Against Trump: Our Rationale.”
Christina Trotta, secretary for the Republican Central Committee of Harford County and a delegate, said she understands Hogan is very “busy” back home.
Steve Schuh, an Anne Arundel County delegate at the convention, said that he’s not the person doing Hogan’s schedule but that the former governor should be spending “every minute” in the state.
“I think Republicans in Maryland know that it’s an important race for Larry Hogan to win for all of Marylanders and for the Republican Party. It’s our best chance,” Schuh said.
Anderson called the absence a campaign move.
“I think what you’re seeing with Hogan is strategy,” he said.
The Democrats are defending 23 Senate seats this election cycle. Every race is critical because Senate control is at stake. The Democrats currently hold a narrow 51-49 seat majority with the aid of three independent senators who caucus with them.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report currently rates the Maryland Senate race as “likely D.”
Capital News Service Reporters James Matheson and Daniel Stein contributed to this story.
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