{"id":2224776,"date":"2024-04-18T21:45:07","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-gop-gov-larry-hogan-tries-to-nab-senate-seat-from-democrats-in-deep-blue-maryland\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T21:47:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T01:47:14","slug":"former-gop-gov-larry-hogan-tries-to-nab-senate-seat-from-democrats-in-deep-blue-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-gop-gov-larry-hogan-tries-to-nab-senate-seat-from-democrats-in-deep-blue-maryland\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Hogan, former Republican Governor, vies for Senate seat in Democratic stronghold Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-gop-gov-larry-hogan-tries-to-nab-senate-seat-from-democrats-in-deep-blue-maryland%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2224776&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan \u200bhas entered the Senate race in Maryland, providing \u200cRepublicans with a potential opportunity to challenge \u2062Democrat stronghold. Hogan,\u2063 known for his successful tenure as governor and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/poll-despite-floridas-even-split-between-gop-dems-desantis-has-strong-approval-rating-overwhelming-support-on-pandemic\/\" title=\"POLL: Despite Florida\u2019s Even Split Between GOP, Dems, DeSantis Has Strong Approval Rating, Overwhelming Support On Pandemic\">strong approval ratings<\/a>, is\u2063 vying \u2064for the \u2064Senate seat \u2064amidst a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-senate-majority-may-come-down-to-11-battleground-races\/\" title=\"Analysis: Senate Majority May Come Down to 11 Battleground Races\">competitive political landscape<\/a>. The race is shaping up to\u200b be a significant and closely watched contest with diverse fundraising\u2064 efforts and strategic \u200dpositioning by key candidates.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>BALTIMORE \u2014<\/strong> Former Maryland Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/larry-hogan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Larry Hogan\">Larry Hogan<\/a>\u2019s entrance into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/maryland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Maryland\">Maryland<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/senate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Larry Hogan\">Senate<\/a> race for retiring Sen. Ben Cardin\u2019s (D-MD) seat is offering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/republicans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Republicans\">Republicans<\/a> what might be their best shot in decades to flip a seat in the deep-blue stronghold. <\/p>\n<p>Hogan, who had been floated as a possible third<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/manufactured-this-russian-collusion-lie-tulsi-gabbard-levels-hillary-clinton-over-durham-report\/\" title=\"\u2018Manufactured This Russian Collusion Lie\u2019: Tulsi Gabbard Levels Hillary Clinton Over Durham Report\">-party presidential candidate<\/a> for months before opting out, earlier this year launched his bid for the Senate seat Cardin first won in 2006. Hogan\u2019s entrance into the race has scrambled the Senate playing field, with Democrats facing a tough map to hold on to their current majority, at 51 seats to 49 for Republicans. At the very least, Hogan\u2019s candidacy will force Democrats to spend time and money on a race they had long assumed to be safely in their column.<\/p>\n<p>Hogan finished his 2015-23 governorship with strong approval ratings. He\u2019ll face the winner of the May 14 Democratic primary. Both Democratic figures lack Hogan\u2019s name recognition: Rep. David Trone (D-MD) and Prince George\u2019s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>(AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The race is the latest to test whether a popular governor can win a Senate seat in a state where he or she belongs to the minority party. While voters are often willing to split tickets for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ill-see-you-in-court-larry-elder-slams-california-secretary-of-state-for-letter-which-claims-he-did-not-qualify-as-a-candidate\/\" title=\"\u2018I\u2019ll See You In Court\u2019: Larry Elder Slams California Secretary Of State For Letter Which Claims He \u2018Did Not Qualify As A Candidate\u2019\">gubernatorial candidates<\/a>, running are what are effectively technocratic, managerial positions, they often take a different view when those same political figures try to reach the Senate, where partisanship rules and holding the majority is everything.<\/p>\n<p>Recent governors in Hogan\u2019s position haven\u2019t fared so well when trying to make the leap. For instance, Linda Lingle was a Republican governor of Hawaii, which rivals Maryland as one of the nation\u2019s most Democratic states, from 2002-10. But she lost a 2012 Senate race, 63%-37%, to Democrat Mazie Hirono. Conversely, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen was a popular Democratic figure at home as chief executive of his strongly Republican state from 2003-11. Still, he got crushed in a 2018 Senate race against Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), 55%-44%. And Montana Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, at the end of his eight year term, ran for Senate against Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT). Bullock had until then bucked Montana\u2019s deep-red tinge, even winning reelection as governor in 2016 as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump swept the state while winning the White House. But Bullock in 2020 lost the Senate race against Daines 55%-45%.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Rep. David Trone (D-MD) and Prince George\u2019s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, Democratic candidates for the Maryland\u2019s open Senate seat (Andrew Harnik\/AP; Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>A big bucks contest<\/h2>\n<p>The Maryland Senate race has already proven to be expensive, with Hogan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/dc-md-va\/2024\/04\/16\/maryland-senate-race-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>raising a total of $3.1 million<\/a> from his campaign and two political action committees. However, Trone, co-founder of the Total Wine &#038; More chain, has largely self-funded his campaign. Trone, who has represented the western Maryland and northwestern Washington exurbs since 2019, has loaned his campaign over $40 million dollars since its start. <\/p>\n<p>Alsobrooks has also proven to have a deep war chest, having raised more than $6.1 million from individual donations since the start of her campaign.\u00a0She can also claim name recognition locally, having been the state\u2019s attorney of Prince George\u2019s County for eight years before winning the county executive post in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/tablet\/2024\/03\/20\/march-5-12-2024-washington-post-university-maryland-poll-maryland-voters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"recent Washington Post-University of Maryland\">recent <em>Washington Post<\/em>-University of Maryland<\/a> poll, in which Hogan led both Trone and Alsobrooks by 12 points and 14 points respectively, may have provided a much-needed boost to Hogan\u2019s campaign, adding more weight to his run.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever Hogan\u2019s popularity during and after his governorship, Maryland is still a deeply Democratic state. In 2020, President Joe Biden beat Trump in the Old Line State by about 65% to 32%. The last successful Republican Senate bid in the state was Sen. Charles M. Mathias Jr., who won the final six-year term of his 18-year tenure in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>Still, that same poll also found that voters preferred having a Democratic Senate, highlighting the battle Hogan will have in swaying voters to his side during a presidential year \u2014 particularly with Biden, a familiar figure in Maryland since he hails from next-door Delaware. As a senator from 1973-2009, before eight years as President Barack Obama\u2019s vice president, Biden regularly rode the train home through Maryland, making him a familiar figure in the state.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> on opening day for the Baltimore Orioles, Hogan, 67, expressed confidence about the Senate race. He alluded to several Senate races viewed as stronger Republican pickup opportunities, such as the virtual sure thing in West Virginia, where Republican Gov. Jim Justice is expected to replace retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are trying to hold on to their Senate seats amid a torrent of GOP criticism and campaigning against them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get it is a hurdle to overcome. We have not elected a senator since 1980 that was a Republican in the state. And there is a battle for control of the Senate \u2014 it\u2019s not going to come down to the bluest state in America,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cThere are 10 or 12 other states that are much more likely to swing the Senate, but I will be a Republican, reasonable person with common sense that\u2019ll go down there and try to keep things from going off the rails and try to represent people in both parties and everybody in Maryland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hogan\u2019s acknowledgment that the race will be a challenging one comes as he has attempted to distance himself from Trump, with whom he tangled while governor, including Trump\u2019s unwillingness to distribute COVID-19 face masks in Maryland and other states and the president\u2019s refusal to send federalized National Guard troops to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to quell the riot that aimed to keep him in office after losing to Biden. Hogan, as governor, sent 500 members of the Maryland National Guard and 200 state troopers to Washington, D.C., that day.<\/p>\n<p>Hogan was only the second Republican governor of Maryland since GOP Gov. Spiro Agnew left Annapolis in January 1969 to become vice president under President Richard Nixon. Hogan won the 2014 Maryland open-seat gubernatorial race. He then won his reelection bid in the state in 2018 by 55.4% to Democrat Ben Jealous\u2019s 43.5%. Hogan pointed to his success in the state when asked how he hopes to balance winning over Trump voters despite being vocally opposed to Trump in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ran 46 points ahead of Donald Trump in Maryland,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that I can win over all of, like I have before, all of the Trump voters plus all of the swing voters, and in Maryland, you have to win all the Republicans, all the independents, and a third of the Democrats in order to be elected. That\u2019s what I did twice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>David Karol, professor at the University of Maryland, said he believes Hogan\u2019s public rebuke of Trump will be a challenge for him, both in courting Republican voters and separating himself from Trump for independent and Democratic voters when they both will be on the ticket in November.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Gov. Hogan is trying to do is difficult,\u201d Karol said. \u201cHe developed a personal brand in Maryland that he wasn\u2019t a typical national Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Karol said, Hogan \u201cnever supported Trump. He tried to stay away from the abortion issue. That\u2019s all going to be a lot harder now for him because he\u2019s on the ballot along with Trump and then the abortion vote. And so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be easy for him to continue to separate himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Karol noted that there are \u201cfar fewer Republicans today who are willing to buck Trump publicly.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Hogan \u201cwill run ahead of Trump and Maryland by several points,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the question is: Is it going to be enough?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>A mix of national and local issues<\/h2>\n<p>Two issues are likely to shape the race: abortion and the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge that killed six people and will have a huge impact on the state\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n<p>Abortion has plagued Republicans the past two cycles after the overturning of <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> returned abortion policy to the states. It has forced Republican candidates to take a stance on abortion and cost the party dozens of races on both the local and national levels. <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Democrats have already started elevating abortion policy in the Maryland Senate race, attacking Hogan for his past statements. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee contends that voting for Hogan would help Republicans pass a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcconnell-claims-a-national-abortion-ban-is-possible-if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned\/\" title=\"McConnell Claims A National Abortion Ban Is \u2018Possible\u2019 If Roe V. Wade Is Overturned\">national abortion ban<\/a> should they win a Senate majority in November.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA vote for Republican Larry Hogan is a vote to turn the Senate over to Republicans so they can pass a national abortion ban,\u201d DSCC spokeswoman Amanda Sherman Baity said. \u201cDemocrats have won every statewide federal election in Maryland for 44 years, and 2024 will be no different.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hogan told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that he would not vote for a national abortion ban, rebuking claims that he would be the deciding vote if elected to the upper chamber. <\/p>\n<p>Hogan also disagreed that voters were concerned about his stance on abortion. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, I don\u2019t think any voters are concerned,\u201d Hogan said. \u201cI think they\u2019re just false attacks by the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also on top of mind for Maryland voters will be the rebuilding of the Baltimore bridge, which collapsed after a cargo ship crashed into a support beam. <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Congress is still weighing funding for the bridge\u2019s repair, with Cardin and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) recently introducing a bill called the Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act that seeks to have the federal government cover all of the costs of fixing the bridge. <\/p>\n<p>The bridge\u2019s repair will likely take years and will take a huge economic toll locally as it was a major port in the state and wider mid-Atlantic region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>He continued, \u201cAnd so it\u2019s going to be a long process that they got from this, and it\u2019s not just the immediate tragedy of the lost lives. It\u2019s going to be an economic impact. It\u2019s going to be long-lasting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Baltimore, ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan jumps into Senate race, providing Republicans a rare chance to flip a deep-blue stronghold seat. Hogan, once considered as a potential third-party presidential contender, has set his sights on filling the retiring Sen. Ben Cardin\u2019s (D-MD) seat, stirring up political dynamics in the state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2912,"featured_media":2224777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/WB.Campaign2-3-1024x591.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/WB.Campaign2-3-1024x591.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2224777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}