Ex-Maryland Governor Hogan won’t challenge Trump in 2024, but doesn’t want him to win

Topline

Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (right) announced on Sunday that he would not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, quelling speculation that Trump’s outspoken critic may be entering one more realm more crowded, saying he wouldn’t “risk becoming part of another multi-car pile-up that could potentially help Mr. Trump reclaim the nomination.”

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan speaks to the media during a press conference after meeting … [+] Governor-elect Wes Moore at the Maryland State House November 10, 2022 in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Highlights

In a statement on TwitterHogan said the Republican Party “must let go of Donald Trump” and his decision is to “secure a future for the Republican Party” rather than “secure my own future in the Republican Party.”

In an opinion piece for the New York Times Also published on Sunday, Hogan criticized the state of the Republican Party, saying that since 2016, “Republican voters have been denied a real debate about what our party stands for beyond loyalty to Mr. Trump,” and that “A cult of personality is not a substitute for a principled party.

Hogan noted that in 2020, “the party hasn’t even bothered to adopt a campaign platform.”

Hogan did not endorse any particular candidate in place of Trump, saying “there are several competent Republican leaders who have the potential to step up and lead.”

Hogan – who left the governor’s office in January after two terms – has criticized Trump in the past, and symbolically refused to vote for Trump twice (he wrote in Ronald Reagan during his 2020 ballot, and in 2016 he wrote in his father, a former congressman).

Key Context

Trump announced his third run for president in November. Trump holds a lead in some early primary polls, but top Republican leaders haven’t been as enthusiastic about him as they have been in the past. He was criticized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for meeting with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and top party fundraisers, including Americans for Prosperity backed by Charles Koch and Steve Schwarzman , have said or implied that they will not support Trump in the future. . He was kicked out of the Club for Growth’s annual private donor retreat on Thursday, after he and anti-tax group chairman David McIntosh had a major rift in several races of 2022. Last week, Trump said slammed the former Fox News ally, after it was revealed that Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a deposition that many of the network’s hosts wished they had been ‘stronger in calling out’ the false fraud allegations Trump election.

Tangent

Trump is facing a challenge for the GOP presidential nomination from former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who declared her candidacy last month and served as Trump’s ambassador to the UN. Many expect Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to run, and some polls have shown him beating Trump.

To monitor

Trump said at a rally on Saturday that he would not drop out of the race if he were to be indicted. “I wouldn’t even think about leaving,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The former president is facing investigations in Fulton County, Georgia, over the 2020 election and the Justice Department for his Jan. 6 actions and mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.